More Perfect than Cookies

I feel like people have this image of God as a booming, scary, impersonal ruler. In most movies, that is exactly how God is depicted, so it seems that may have some influence over our impression. However, I'm starting to believe this image of God we have in our head (and see on the big screen) may be dead wrong. 

About a week ago I was reading the book of Job on a chilly winter day. Just sitting at my normal spot in Starbucks, sipping coffee and reading. 

{If you've never read the book of Job, here's a synopsis: Job is a wonderful servant to God and Satan challenges God, telling him that Job wouldn't worship His name and stay faithful if God allowed him to take away everything Job owns. When Job stays worshipping the Lord, Satan declares that if Job loses his health, he will not still praise God. And so, Job loses literally everything; his family, house, health, everything. And throughout the book him and his friends question what the Lord has done, pleading for God to tell them why this has happened. God then replies to them, rebuking them for questioning the Lord almighty.} 

It is the end of this book that became a spring board for me. I was reading what God was saying in chapter 38, but in my own voice. And of course, this means that the words were filled with sassiness. Go ahead and read this little segment, but in a sassy voice. Make sure to picture the whole thing, you know...hip-popped, finger wagging, sassy. 

Job 38: 4-7; 12-18; 21

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
    and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
    Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know all this.

21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
    You have lived so many years!

I don't know about you, but when I read it that way, I began to laugh. out loud. in the middle of Starbucks. I mean, really laugh. Because it was just so funny. And I know it could have been taken super seriously, but that's not how it came through to me. Not that I think God was wagging his finger or popping his hip, but I do think he meant it with that much sass. 

The biggest proof I have that God must have a personality comes in the first book of the Bible. We are created in His image. Genesis 1:26-27 literally says:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness' ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." 

We are imperfect versions of the Lord. And if that's the case, then our personalities had to come from somewhere. Sass, joy, sarcasm, anger, humor, compassion, empathy; they all had to have been created when God created us. Psychologists say that personality is something you are born with, not something that is developed. It remains mostly stable throughout your life. They even have scientifically verified that animals also have personalities. That can't be something that just appeared out of nowhere; God intended for us to have character traits. We are creative, because he is (I mean, he created everything in this world). We are loving because He is {I mean, he created love}.

So why do we act like He is this looming, scary dictator? Of course, we should be fearful of the Lord, but not so fearful that we shy away from his loving embrace or ignore His comfort. 

A wonderful friend of mine, someone I look up to considerably in my faith,  recently told me a story I think envelopes this point exactly. Callie was walking to home one morning while listening to worship music. A Bethel song called "You Are My One Thing" came on and the lyrics really struck a chord with her.

"Just to be close to you

_________                  Just to walk next to you               __________

This is my one thing

You are my one thing" 

And so, she begins to imagine what that's like, Jesus just walking next to her. And she's thinking about how He is her Best Friend, her Fiancé, her Father. How the Lord calls her to just be in His presence, to enjoy the warmth of Him and to bask in Him, and How he loves for us to just enjoy life next to Him. To have Him walk beside us. And she looked to where she imagined Him to be and just imagined Him laughing and saying "Race yah!" And it felt so real to her she actually started to speed up, walking faster and then kind of skip-jogging. And laughing. 

To some of you, that may sound ridiculous. You may say that Jesus wasn't there, or that Jesus wouldn't say something like that. Or that she was silly for speeding up, not like it was a real race. 

But you're wrong. 

That is the kind of relationship God desires to have with us. One full of fun and genuine laughter. He desires to sit next to us and to walk everywhere by our side. He craves a love with us so pure and deep that nothing else could even touch it. Being a Christian doesn't mean going to church and studying the Bible. It's about loving Jesus with all your heart, and having a real relationship with the One who created you. So why can't we imagine that Jesus is with us, walking beside us, cracking jokes and acting silly? He is a perfect being, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a personality, He just happens to have the most perfect one of all. 

Don't take Him too seriously, or you'll miss out on a friendship that's more perfect than a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. 

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Listen to "You Are My One Thing" here