God.....someONE, not someTHING

I am stealing this title from something my pastor said in one of his sermons a few months back.  He said that we (speaking of Christians) often make the mistake of seeing God as someTHING and not someONE.  Can we just take a minute to let that soak in?  I mean, wow!  What a huge mistake to make!! And it is one I am VERY guilty of.  For me, it has always been difficult to picture God as anything less than a huge, mighty, forceful being that reins supreme in all realms of space/time/reality etc...and while He is DEFINITELY all those things, He is not only those things.

While reading the OT, I came across some phrases that just stood out and struck me.  They are statements like, "and God heard", and "God grieved" and "God looked".  I started wondering why God, who is infinite and always, needs to hear/grieve/look. In fact, why does He respond at all the way He does to the people in the OT?  Then, that statement was brought back to my mind.  Because He is someONE!

Genesis clearly states we are made in His image!  He made us like Him. Joe Buck (a dear family friend/student of God's word) recently said to me, "we love, because He loves...we are compassionate, because He is compassionate....we grieve, because He grieves....we care, because He cares"  All the things about us that make us the "person" that we are, are because that is who He is! (of course ours have been marred by sin and our sin-nature...but you get what I mean)

God is completely affected by us!  Read in all the OT books how His mind and heart would change because of the prayers of His faithful.  Look, really look, at the relationship He had with Abraham and David and others.  He was their FRIEND.  I mean, Abraham felt close enough to God, to roll on the floor laughing when God told him he was going to bless him and Sarah with a son.  ROLLED ON THE FLOOR!!! (Gen 17:17) and God did not strike him down, or even scold him.  Can you imagine having that kind of closeness, intimacy and friendship with God? That is what I am desperate for!
I am desperate to KNOW the person God and He wants me too! So much so that He sent His Son to die so I could forever be with Him!!  To really sit back and dwell on that is almost too much to bear!  But it is so much easier to understand Him when I really consider He is a someONE and I almost can't wait to see what He shows me next in His word!!