PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: God acts more like a young adult than an old man

By FATHER JIM CESTA

No one has yet seen God, but we still want to.

But when one thinks about it strolling through the scriptures, it’s obvious that God has given images and suggestions of how God is. And it’s not always the “old man” with the white beard. In many ways God comes across as a young adult.

The creator in Genesis seems like a young man who hung the heavens and flung the planets in their courses, bright-eyed, alert, edgy at the peak of His powers.

What did God cause at the first Pentecost?

The bystanders thought everyone had drunk too much, some of the furniture got tossed about the room; they, the first church, began to shake, rattle and roll like when college kids have a party.

God, in many places of the Word, marvels and takes delight in what is new and awesome with crops and seeds and figs germinating — young ones are like that.

How about all the parties we find – after the prodigal son comes home, when the shepherd finds the lost sheep, when the wedding party grew thirsty and wine was called for. Our God, in Jesus, often does what vibrant young people do, calling attention to more mature folks who have grown too pompous, self-important or blind to injustices. He once called the King Herod a fox.

God is like a young adult who spends more time with the crowd, a gang, out and about, than being alone. Friends are everything.
God, in Christ, always is inviting, embracing traveling with his “buddies” called Apostles. You might say that God is slow to take revenge, idealistic about finding some good in each person, with the gift of pardon and peace, not dwelling on the past but pushing the envelope on what could be in the future. Young people think like that.

Perhaps this reflection and guessing what God is like might not appeal to you, but one thing is for sure, our God likes to make friends and keep them for all eternity.

That much we really like, right?