(The Revd Dr Jo White from the Parish Pump Web site continues with) Reflected Faith Series: The grandeur of God. Do you understand the mysteries of God? Who is He? What is He up to? If Jesus’s disciples who were with Him daily for years had trouble understanding Him, what expectation is there that you and I will? We get glimpses of Him – through new life, through nature, in creativity, music and dance and so on – but none of us truly sees every part of Him. St Paul himself wrote that “now we see through a glass darkly”. So how do we try to express the grandeur of God? In the Old Testament, Isaiah 6:1, the prophet wrote, ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of His robe filled the temple.’ I love that picture, it makes me think of brides on their wedding day who have a full skirt and train, and the help they need from their bridesmaids just to get in and out of the wedding car let alone anything else they need to do. Architects and builders over the centuries have used the church building to illustrate aspects of God and to share their faith. If you are able, visit a large church building or cathedral and spend some time there when there is no service taking place. As you go into the building, quickly stop and just look around you. ‘Feel’ the space surrounding and above you. The distance between you and the ceiling or roof. Stop for a while in the area where the congregation sit – the nave – taken from the Latin word navis meaning ‘ship’. This is because when they were built, largely in the Middle Ages, the people thought a nave looked like the bottom part of a ship turned upside-down. This reminded them also of the story of God saving His creation at the time of the flood by using the Ark. What does this space say to you about the mysteries of God? 11
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