J. Edwards Quote: God is not Narsissus, we are.

“As God delights in his own beauty, he must necessarily delight in the creature’s holiness which is a conformity to and participation of it, as truly as (the) brightness of a jewel, held in the sun’s beams, is a participation or derivation of the sun.’”

- Jonathan Edwards (The End for which God Created the World)

Though it is a constant theme in Scripture, many Christians recoil when confronted with the idea of God’s Delighting in His Own beauty. We simply don’t like it. We want God to delight in us above all things. I want Him to be all about me – my world, my life, my concerns, my beauty, my standing, my reputation, my health. Me and me alone. What a shock it is to our system when we discover that God is all about God – first and foremost; that His desire to glorify Himself takes precedence over every other concern.

When we consider this, we immediately try to “humanize” the idea. Is God not arrogant? How could he demand so much attention without being guilty of selfishness.  We mumble inside our hearts, “God is just an attention hog, that’s what He is. Always demanding our love, demanding our devotion, demanding our worship. He’s just a big old baby!  And if we don’t give Him what He wants then He pouts and thinks about ways to smite us into oblivion.”

Though deeply flawed, it is very natural to think this way.  When we truly contemplate God’s demand to be glorified, it only makes sense to go this direction with our thought. But let’s consider just a couple of things that may help us to move in a better direction.

First of all, let’s understand that God’s love and worship of Himself is not selfish or arrogant, but supremely sacrificial and otherly. I once had a pastoral colleague tell me that he hated the idea of God seeking His own glory. He said that he refused to teach this doctrine to his people because it perpetuated selfishness and made God out to be nothing more than a Narcissistic deity who cared nothing for others.  Is this true?

Just so you know, in Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hero who was renowned for his astounding beauty. In fact, according to most traditions, Narcissus was so beautiful that he fell in love with himself, constantly gazing at his own reflection in a pool of water.  Eventually, so obsessed with his appearance, Narcissus fell into the water and drowned.

Is this God? Is God like Narcissus – self absorbed and arrogant?

This is where the Christian doctrine of the Trinity becomes so imperative. Understanding that God is tri-personal – three persons and one God – affirms that God is communal – in and of Himself. This explains how God has always been loving, and that His love is not contingent upon having a creature on which to bestow that love. God is love, and always has been. God is perfectly able to express that love within the Godhead – the Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Spirit, and so on. Therefore, God’s passion for His Glory is no self absorbed passion no more than His love for Himself is a self-absorbed love. The scripture bears this out for us. When faced with the Crucifixion, Jesus said, “for this purpose I have come unto this hour. Father, glorify your name (John 12:27).”  Also, in John 17:1, Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.”

Do you see it? We could go on and on to make this point. The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. The Son glorifies the Father. The Father glorifies the Son and so on. So then, God’s divine compulsion to Glorify Himself is other-ly, sacrificial, and supremely loving. God is not Narcissus, we are. We are the ones who stare at our own reflection. We are the ones who are self-absorbed. When God commands us to Worship Him, it is His invitation for us to enter into community, into self-forgetfulness, and into divine love. Yet, we refuse. Because of our sinful condition, we are addicted to staring into the proverbial pond, fawning over our supposed beauty, preening in self-delight; so much so that we eventually fall headlong into the siren call of those waters, drowning ourselves inside ourselves.

Moving further, let’s also understand that God’s invitation, His command, that we Glorify Him, is not an unloving desire. When God created us, He made us after His own image. This is a mysterious idea. We may never fully understand in this life, nor in the life to come, what it fully means to be created in God’s Image. Yet, we can know this: Just as God Glorifies Himself and enjoys and finds pleasure in that Glory, so He has also made us to Glorify Him and share in the pleasure of that Glory. In other words, we were designed to Glorify God. It is our greatest pleasure and joy. Just as fish were designed for water and birds were designed for flight, so we were made to Glorify God and Love Him supremely.

Think about what Edwards is saying. We are like diamonds that are created for the light of the sun. The brighter the light, the more brilliant the diamond shines, which gives glory back to the wonder of light and color. In the same way, God has made us, to shine like stars in the universe. As we Glorify Christ, we come alive – we are doing what we were designed to do. God glorifies us with His Glory that we might more perfectly Glorify Him. And this is our crown…our design…our ultimate purpose. Thanks be to God, who has sent us Christ Jesus, so that we might be given the desire and ability to glorify God, and in so doing, discover our deepest joy.

Blessings in Christ!

Ash Wednesday, Spiders, Jonathan Edwards, and the Glory of God in Small Things

“We hence see the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who hath not only provided for all the necessities, but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures, and even the insects and those that are most despicable.”

- Jonathan Edwards “Of Insects”

On this Ash Wednesday, as we begin the season of Lent, I would like to consider together with you the Grace of Christ that lurks in the nooks and crannies of our lives. On this somber day, for a moment, let’s allow the possibility that the Grace of Jesus is not wholly seen by our eyes; not fully heard by our ears; not truly understood in our perception. Grace is not often gaudy, but quiet, moving slowly and effortlessly within our hearts and in the world around us.

In the Scriptures we read about the faith of a mustard seed moving mountains and about being faithful in small things and about Christ saying suffer not the little children to come unto me and about Christ knowing how many hairs are on our heads and that He feeds tiny birds and clothes the wild flowers in beauty. Among other things, I think these verses tell us that Christ cares about small things…in between things…what we might call boring things.

Yesterday I read an article by Jonathan Edwards – one of the greatest theological minds ever to live in America. The article was about the beauty and wonder of spiders. Edwards went into intricate detail about how spiders, almost invisible to men, hop from tree to tree and shoot a miraculous “liquor” out of their tails to spin their webs. He explains that their webs are spun in the full light of day, yet we do not see them unless the light and our line of sight come together at the proper angle.

(They) are so exceeding small and fine as that they cannot be discerned except held in a particular position with respect to the sun.”

These tiny creatures, dancing in the shadows, after fulfilling their divine purpose, eventually construct a substance from their webs that enables them to fly by catching hold of the breeze, taking them out over the ocean and into the sea.

Edwards says that he learned these things about spiders through careful observation, which means he must have spent time out in the fields, observing the insect world. He went on to say that this taught him much about the Wisdom of God and how God does such miraculous “little things” among the insects.

Reading Edwards’ words caused met to consider my nature and the modern culture in which I live. We claim that we cannot hear God and never imagine that it is our pride that clogs our ears and not God’s silence. We, being blind, accuse God of hiding from us. We demand that Christ speak to us with large, over hanging words, written by hand in ornate calligraphy, replete with personal affirmations and affections. We order Christ to play his music according to our tastes, to dance a jig for us, to make much of us, to entertain us. We forcefully require Christ to be our Jester and not our King; we order the Church to be our spiritual muse while rejecting her as our mother.

Meanwhile, thinking ourselves abandoned and betrayed, we are absolutely drenched in the Glories of God. We are swimming in the Grace of Christ. We sit at a Banquet Table with clenched lips and accuse God of starving us to death while Manna falls from the heavens; but our eyes are closed. Our Line of Sight is not adjusted to the Sun. The spiders in the fields weave wonderful tapestries from the tip of their tails and ride the wind into the seas; but we do not see. The heavens are telling a story. Nature is singing a song. The Gospel drips from the trees as each branch reaches for the skies, lifting holy hands to the world’s Redeemer. But we cannot hear nor see nor feel the music because we are blind, deaf, unfeeling, unthinking…numb and jaded by our idolatry.

Yet, it is in the small things…in the life in between, in the so called boring stuff of life, where our Savior dwells; And holding out His Gracious hand, to blind and silly men, our Messiah, not our Jester, lifts us up into the Full Light of Day, and singing soft the song of Mystery, He invites us to the Cross. As we bow our ashen heads on this first day of Lent to consider our hearts before God, may the Lord fully awaken every spiritual sensibility, that we may know the Resurrection joy that continually holds us in the quiet Grace of Christ.

Note: Just so you know, Edwards was only 11 years old when he made these observations. You can read his article “Of Insects” by clicking HERE.

Scripture Verses to Consider…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matt 5:3

“Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 19:14

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” – Luke 16:10

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” – Matthew 6:26

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.” – Psalm 19:1-3