27th
The Narcissistic God? Part 2/5
#2 THE WATER TOWER
Imagine you are about 7 years of age. You have just moved to a quaint traditional town. The streets are laid out in a standard North-South and East-West grid. All the streets in the residential section have trees growing between the street and side walk and look very much the same.
Now imagine that for some strange reason there are no street signs, taken down for repainting, maybe.
One day you are out having a fun time riding your bike with some of your neighborhood friends and you go from street to street, down a street, over a street, through an alley, and down some more streets.
Suddenly you remember you are supposed to be home before dusk and you break away as the others disappear around the corner.
You look up and down the street but you don’t recognize any houses as your neighbors. You ride down to the corner and look both ways, up and down the cross street and further down the street you are on. Still no houses or landmarks you recognize.
You look up in the sky above the trees and see the clouds getting a little darker as dusk starts to press forward.
Now you ride hard for several blocks, looking up and down every street you cross trying to find some house or landmark you recognize. Nothing.
After more attempts you realize that you went by a certain brightly colored house earlier in your search, but that doesn’t help as you don’t remembering seeing that house in your neighborhood.
You know your house is close by but you can’t find it and dusk has arrived.
You are lost, it is dark and you don’t know anyone who can help you since you really don’t remember the name of your own street as you are only seven and don’t think about such detailed things.
However, you suddenly notice in the distance a water tower which is always lit up at night. The water tower has the town name on its side and you can see the name from the front porch of your house.
The water tower is several blocks away and you can’t see the name of the town on it. So off you go toward the tower, getting closer by the second.
Finally, you arrive at the block where the tower is located. Slowly you start riding around the tower. There! Up there. You see the town name painted on the side. You ride down a street away from the tower and look back - you can still see the name on the tower.
You keep going away from it several blocks as the letters appear much larger than when you see it from your front porch. In a couple of minutes you sense that you have seen the houses along this street before, but it is dark and you aren’t sure. You stop your bike and look back again to the tower. It looks about the same size as when you see it from your house.
You ride your bike slowly. Then just ahead you see some people standing on a porch with the light on. As you draw near you see your parents and some friends and a policeman talking. What happened you wonder.
You ride your bike up to the porch. Just then someone yells loudly and nearly scares you out of your wits. “Here he is!”
Everyone turns to look at you. What? What? What did I do? Your mom comes running off the porch and flings her arms around your neck. Embarrassing.
But it feels good to be at home.
The reason that we are to lift up God by doing all to his glory is not him being narcissistic. Rather He serves as the reference point by which everyone can determine where they are, whether the reference point(God) is appreciated or not. A society without such a reference point being prominent enough is fractured at best and chaotic at worst.
This same picture was used by Moses in the wilderness in the Hebrew Bible and was also referenced by Jesus himself, “And I, If I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Next: #3 Seeing God in All the Right Places
