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A God Who Reaches Out

Years ago I was guest speaker at a conference of a group of churches in a remote part of SW Uganda. One of the delegates I met there had walked for a couple of days to attend, sleeping out in the bush under the stars, and drinking water from whatever muddy pool he came across. I've been back several times since, but I've never forgotten the remarkable dedication of that one individual.

It's been widely acknowledged, and I've written here previously, that the universe seems to speak to us of an architect - a creator of everything we see around us. If that's true, it would require similar dedication on their part for us to have any chance of knowing and understanding them.

The innumerable religions and concepts of God that we find around the world today, not to mention throughout history, and the many other theories of origins, are testimony to this. Left to ourselves we are incapable of figuring out definitively, to everyone's agreement and satisfaction, who or what gave birth to the universe and to ourselves. For us to know them, they would have to reach out to us.

In the Bible we find a description of a God who does just that. In the imagery of the book of Genesis, even before the emergence of civilisation we find God walking the earth like a gardener in a garden. God appears at crucial times and makes himself known to key influencers like Abraham and Moses. God speaks through people known as 'seers' or 'prophets' and appears in dreams and visions.

It is true that this God does not make himself particularly obvious. If you wonder why, just watch the prayer scene in Bruce Almighty! Research backs it up - most people only pray when they want something. Why would God expose himself (or herself) to that? But he reveals himself to those who sincerely want to know him for who he is, not just for what they can get out of him.

Finally, in Jesus, we find a God who not only reaches out to us but who fully identified with us - to the extent of experiencing human life, suffering and death for himself. One who offers solutions to the very worst aspects of the human condition. Who, on surrendering his human flesh, remained with us in spirit - literally the very breath or life of God, with all the accumulated memories of life lived as a human being, continuing among us and working in us.

Surely that's a God worth responding to and reaching out towards?

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