Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Summary: Looking at ourselves as if we are a cartoon symbol opens up new insights into our relationship with God.
Warning: This episode of ThreeMinuteBible.com might get a little weird. :-)
As you know, I occasionally do a cartoon for this blog using my somewhat overdeveloped sense of humor and my underdeveloped drawing skills. What you may not know is that my brain often “sees” ideas in cartoon form.
Sometimes words come to mind expressing an idea. Occasionally, all I have is a feeling. Every now and then, an idea comes to me as a cartoon. For today’s meditation, I would like to use a cartoon to illustrate what I “see” in my mind. This particular illustration has to do with who we are as people, who our Creator is, and how we relate to each other.
The first image I want to share is one that I have used for several years to represent God:
It is a simple triangle representing the three faces of God that we usually refer to as the “Trinity”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This morning I made a connection that I hadn’t seen before. The “triangle” can also be used to represent us:
It makes sense when I remember the words of Genesis:
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
We are created in God’s image and we actually mirror the three faceted quality of the Godhead: mind, body, and soul. The human mind functions like the Father. Jesus is God in the flesh and, like Jesus, we, too, have a body. Our spirit also mirrors that of our Creator.
The function of the mind is reasoning. God himself encourages the Israelites to plead or argue with him (Isaiah 43:26). The purpose of the flesh is to interact with the world God created. Jesus became God in the flesh. Our spirit yearns for our God (Isaiah 26:9) and God’s Spirit is our spiritual lifeblood.
The similarity between ourselves and our Creator makes all kinds of sense, and I wonder why I haven’t seen it before.
There is one more part to the cartoon I see in my mind and that is the “will.” The word “will” describes what we choose to do. In my mind, I picture it like a circle (or an ellipse, depending on my mental point of view). Everything inside the circle is what we have decided is “okay” to do. Everything outside the circle is “crossing the line.” Outside the circle are the things we refuse to do or believe in.
Now, this is where the cartoon gets interesting. Putting God’s words into practice is what we call “submitting” to God’s will. It also means that the circle of things we choose to do fits inside, or at least mostly inside, of God’s circle.
Of course, if we reject God, then we reject his priorities. Our will might overlap a little with God’s will, but we miss the main point: To get into heaven, we have to honor God above all else. We can’t strut into heaven with a chip on our shoulder and expect God to submit to our attitude for the day. It doesn’t work that way. (That is why the Greatest Commandment begins with “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” [Matthew 22:37] and not “Do some cool stuff that God thinks is okay and maybe go to church once in a while.”)
Everything in God’s will is like a rock. Build on it and it will last (Matthew 7:24). Everything outside of God’s will is the proverbial “sinking sand.” Build on sand and what you have built will wash away.
I hope sharing these cartoon drawings helps you visualize what I have been thinking about. Hopefully, they help us understand how we interact with God. Maybe they might even be helpful in understanding future meditations on the Lord’s Prayer.
Application: Your mind and spirit are invisible like God’s, and like God, you and I are “three-in-one.”
Food for Thought: Does today’s illustration help or hinder your understanding of our relationship with God? Explain.
Hmm. You did warn us😊
Actually, I need to ruminate on this for a while. How much it helps is yet to be determined for me, but I appreciate your analytical mind and your meditation upon the Lord and our relationship with Him. I can learn from that alone. I am thankful for you and appreciate you brother.
Rich,
Thank you for your patience and willingness to indulge my mental meanderings!
I love that you made God’s will look like a light. Perhaps it should be shining along a path, then we’d have the narrow way leading to the narrow gate. We’d have to choose to walk in the light or the dark.
As for your illustration of the trinity in man, I’ve usually seen body – soul – spirit. Soul and spirit we all get mixed up in since we don’t understand the bounds of these invisible qualities about us. Your version is intriguing as it highlights different elements of our existence.
As R said, time will tell how well this visual stands. But it’s good to make us think, regardless!
A –
Thank you! I appreciate your thoughts on the graphic. 🙂 I am not exactly sure where this is going to take me, but I am glad you are willing to follow along and see where this goes.
10-22-2022, Matt 7:24, Does today’s illustration help or hinder your understanding of our relationship with God? Explain.
I appreciate your illustration. I have often thought of the physical body ( our earthly containment ), soul ( emotional center ) and spirit ( in contact with God to the degree we submit ), not being God, but being His creation in His image as revealed in the Bible. I really appreciate how you have placed believers in God’s will, projecting God’s will to the world, not by our power but by His power.
Great Job Brother!
Thanks Ron!
I appreciate your words. They encourage me. I’ll be careful not to push my analogy too far but in certain areas I think it helps to understand what God is trying to tell us.