Reaching for God

I have said many times before that we are always in a state of motion. We are either moving towards or away from God. We seek Him and His righteousness. We move within his grasp. We turn our eyes to worldly pursuits and the false idols of money and power and we slip away.

Jesus said:

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Luke 16:13

The world mocks and taunts those who try to live for higher things. They are square, they aren't cool... or they because fringe figures, radicals. Jesus himself encountered this.

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
Luke 16:14, 15

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him
Genesis 1: 27

The focal point of Michelangelo's the Creation of man, part of the magnificent Sistine Chapel, is the contact between the fingers of the Creator and those of Adam, through which the breath of life is transmitted. God, supported by angels in flight and wrapped in a mantle, leans towards Adam, shown as a resting athlete, whose beauty seems to confirm the words of the Old Testament, according to which man was created to the image and likeness of God.

This image is one of the most indelible images in the history of art. Why? What makes it so amazing? The image holds your attention. There is a tension in the picture. The fingers aren't touching... they are about to touch. But there is a gap, a tiny space in between the finger of God and the finger of man. That little space... that allusive little separation is what keeps us from Him... its so much the same with our lives.


In the Creation of Man we see the story of our own relationship with the Father God. We don't see whether they are growing closer, closing the gap, or if Adam is slipping away.

We are always moving. Which way are you going? Towards truth and towards light? Or into the shadows? Let us drop what pulls us back and move ever forward towards Him, towards His greatness.