#5- The Invisibility of God: Fishing for God.

My old old friend, Mike the Oxford Genius, says that he is a terrible fisherman, even though the romance of fishing really appeals to him. He once mused (in a sermon) that God is like a fish.

The thing that is so frustrating and yet at the same time so challenging about fishing, Mike says, is that it is a blind activity: On the whole you can't see the fish you are trying to catch. All you have is the suspicion of fish, or the rumor of fish. Fishing is an activity carried out in hope.

This lack of sight is why we go 'fishing', and not 'cowing', Mike says. You wouldn't put a piece of grass on a hook in a paddock and hope that a cow eats it.

I'm with Mike. When I go fishing, I get the right bait, I get the right sinker etc; I check the tides, and go with the right people. But I always see others catching lots of fish. And never me.

Mike thinks that God is like a fish in this: It appears impossible to get him to come out into the open. You can't see him, and so it is really hard to know what he is like.

"What bait will entice him?" Mike muses. We suspect that he is there. Most people, some surveys say up to 90%, believe in God in some way or another. We hear rumors of people having wonderful encounters with God, and yet it doesn't seem to happen to me.

The Apostle John says, "no-one has ever seen God." But John goes on: "It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known."

When Jesus came, God came out of the shade and into the sun. When Jesus came, God took out the guesswork, (while maintaining the mystery of the greatest of God).

More to come...

_____________________
Pic on Flickr by Altus.