Wednesday, January 3, 2007 · no responses · comments closed

Most of us like personal attention, knowing that someone else has given thought to us individually and specifically. But so many Christians don’t seem to believe that personal attention can occur between themselves and God, and certainly, the lost don’t believe that such a thing exists — and they often make fun of us who not only believe in it but expect it.

Growing up, I heard about “getting saved,” and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I heard phrases like “a personal relationship with God” or “accept Jesus as your personal Savior.” I had mixed feelings about such wording, particularly the second one, which sounds a little too much like Jesus is in the same category as personal chefs, personal assistants, and personal trainers.

But, I have come to appreciate more and more the thought behind such phrasing, because it points toward the heart of what I believe Christianity is about: relationship, as opposed to religion. Even in the Old Testament, which seems to be all about law and rules, we see people interacting with God in addition to honoring and obeying His statutes. When I think of Abraham, for instance, I think first of his discussion with God about Sodom, not his willingness to obey. Likewise, thinking of Moses brings to mind his request that God show him His ways. And, of course, you can’t read the Psalms without seeing that David was intimately acquainted with God; he had a relationship, not rules, that dictated his interaction with God.

Even more so, Jesus tells us that He came to show us the Father — not God, but the Father. Relationship is inherent in the meaning of father, and in case we miss that idea, the Holy Spirit reinforces it through Jesus — “my Father and your Father” — through Paul, who begins almost every letter with “Grace to you and peace from God our Father,” and through John, who continually makes mention of “the Father” in his letters.

If God is not just the Father or even our Father, but my Father, why would I not expect personal attention? One of my biggest challenges is trying to find ways to give Anna, Isaac, and Zachary individual attention. Lately, Isaac has been asking to do more with me by ourselves — and that should hardly be surprising, right? I’m his father.

So what got me thinking about all of this? I had a wonderful reminder last night that it is all about relationship and that God does pay attention to me personally. I’ve not had a good night’s sleep in several weeks, and when I prayed with the children, I made a mental note that I should pray for sleep for myself when it was time. As I was preparing for bed, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to go through the nighttime, or compline, prayers in The Divine Hours. I was already getting to bed later than I had planned, and I kept thinking of things I needed to do before going to bed, and so I thought, “I’ll just ask for God to bless me with a good night as I move around the house taking care of business.” And I did that, but the Spirit kept nudging me, so finally I went to my office to sit down and get out the prayer book — and I did so rather grudgingly.

What a huge blessing awaited me! The Divine Hours sometimes includes poetry, most of which I’m unfamiliar with — but last night’s prayers included Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “Pied Beauty.” As I’ve noted here before, I really like Hopkins; his poems are beautiful on so many levels. When I saw the poem, I was deeply touched. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of someone giving you an unexpected gift that showed they had really paid attention to your likes and dislikes; as wonderful as the gift itself is, the realization that someone cared was even better.

That’s exactly what I felt last night. The Holy Spirit could have given up and said, “Fine, if you won’t listen to me, too bad for you!” (Though I don’t think He actually works that way.) No, He gently persisted because He loved me and wanted me to know it in a way that was really meaningful to me. What an awesome thing it is to get personal attention from the living God!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the poem, here it is; “pied” in the title means “multi-colored,” and the poem is a celebration of God’s creativity in mixing things.

Glory be to God for dappled things — 
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced — fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.