Changing Your Image of God
How We See God Affects How We Live

By Bo Sanchez

“Sssshhh! Quiet! God will get mad at you!”

We usually hear that in church, from parents admonishing their children to behave.

And we have said it, too, at one time or another — admit it!

A simple, harmless line, you’d probably say. But to a child who’s just starting to grow in awareness of God, it could mean a whole lot later in life.

For many of us, our parents are the first source of our image of God. They can create in our minds an image of God that is a reflection of their own image of Him. Your relationship with your parents also affects how you view God.

A person who was brought up in a family where love is earned, not freely given, grows into believing that she has to earn God’s love by first performing good deeds.

But the truth is, God loves us even before we do anything good. And He loves us even if we sin left and right throughout our life.

His primary concern is about loving us, not keeping a tally of our sins. He pursues us even when we try to escape from Him. He stoops low and reaches out to us until He is able to bring us Home with Him. And even if that does not happen in our lifetime, He has given us purgatory, where we can still be cleansed of our sins so we can reach heaven.

Such is our Prodigal Father.

And that is the image of God that I adore and love.

What’s yours?

*This article was taken from Kerygma magazine February 2009 issue. If you want to subscribe to K magazine click here or call us at 725-9999. 

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