Squiggly Image

"Oh, this one's going to be hard..."

Years ago, my family was playing a game of Pictionary with some friends from church, and it was my son Christopher's turn to do the drawing.  Pictionary is a guessing game that is similar to charades, where one person draws pictures to provide clues to a secret word or phrase that others must guess correctly as quickly as possible.  As an example, if the word is "chicken", the person who knows the word will try to draw a chicken, while the others blurt out what they think is being drawn until someone says "chicken!".  Sometimes the word or phrase is easy (most people know how to draw a chicken), but others can be practically impossible, and requires all the creativity and imagination that one can muster.  It appeared that my son would have to pull out some trick out of his sleeves for this one.

Tension filled the air as the timer went off.  Suddenly my son's eyes brightened as he approached the large piece of paper.  He drew what looked like a canoe.

"A boat!  No, a ship...a dinghy...an aircraft carrier!"  I started to yell mindlessly as the little vessel started to take shape.

He shook his head, and kept drawing.  Now he started to draw what appeared to be a person on the boat.

"Man on the boat...a sailor!  No, pirate?  Captain Hook?"

No luck so far, and the timer ticked on.  What could it possibly be?  Meanwhile, my son started to put some squiggly hair on the person's head, and drew a hat on top.

"George Washington!"

My son stopped drawing and fist-pumped into the air.  "Yes!  You got it!"

The air stood still for a second before everyone else in the room let out a collective gasp of shock and awe.  It seemed beyond understanding how I could correctly guess the words "George Washington" from the drawing of a person with squiggly hair and a hat standing on a boat.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out.  Chris was drawing Washington crossing the Delaware!"

It just happened that my son and I recently saw a reproduction of that famous 1851 Emanuel Leutze painting.  Chris' rendition of the man on the boat was not much closer to George Washington than Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland, but a little intuition led me to the proper conclusion.  It was, albeit an imprecise one, an image of the first President of the United States of America.

In a way, we are all somewhat imprecise images.  On the sixth day of creation, when God created man, it was written,

So God created man in his own image
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that there is much in us that reflects God in any way.  We are blemished, selfish, arrogant, shameful and without self control.  Some of us are tall, short, fat, skinny, funny looking or without fashion sense.  A well known pastor has often said that if you don't think that God has a sense of humor, just look at all the people around us.

Yet, despite all our shortcomings, each of us still bears God's communicable attributes.  God is beautiful and creative, and we enjoy the beauty of His creation.  God is righteous, and our conscience tells us what is right and wrong.  God is the source of life, and we value life and admire those who save lives.  God is community as a triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we are made not to be alone, but to live with those we love.

May we always remember to live our days as if we are created in God's image, though we may appear only as little squiggly lines when compared to our Creator.  May we also value each and every person, regardless of what we see, as someone who also bears His image in an unique way.

Blinking Red Lights

The day was off to an uneventful start.  I woke up, ran around the neighborhood for exercise, ate breakfast, drank coffee, showered, dressed, and ushered my two teenagers into the car at 7 a.m. for their 8-minute ride to school.  I didn't really have to be at the office until 8:30 a.m., so there was plenty of time to drive to work.  The traffic, however, was unusually busy that day, and the city's main thoroughfare was flooded with a sea of red brake lights from the cars in front of me.  I strained my neck to discern the situation down the road, and saw that the traffic signal half a mile ahead was blinking red, indicating a malfunction.  I tried to look for a detour, but none was available.  I glanced to my side, and saw a Los Angeles County Sheriff patrol car also mired in the same traffic.

This was going to take a while.

The half-mile trek to the intersection with the malfunctioned traffic signal took over half an hour, enough time to listen to all the late breaking news on the radio, along with reports on the weather, stock markets, and details on every single professional football and basketball game over the weekend.  I did manage to make it to work on time, but barely.  It would have been nice if the police officer in the patrol vehicle beside me was out there directing traffic rather than being stuck in it himself.

Traffic signal malfunctions are thankfully quite rare during my daily drives to work, but a single malfunction at the wrong place and wrong time (this one happened to be at a major intersection in front of a high school during rush hour) could spell total chaos.  It is easy to complain about getting stuck behind a red light at the intersection under normal traffic conditions, and give little thought to how intricate and vital traffic control is in the city until it fails.  In the same way, we also take for granted the intricate order and physical laws of the universe, and occasionally even fantasize of worlds where some of these laws could be tinkered with in time travel machines, anti-gravity footwear and the like.  Fortunately, God is sovereign over the universe and all creation.  The Bible begins with the declaration that God is responsible for everything that has ever existed:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1

Creation responds by declaring God's glory:

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Psalm 19:1

We can be confident that there will be no "malfunction" in our universe as long as God sustains it.  All existence will cease in a moment if He does not.