The Faces of God: Unseen Movement

 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2

In the coming weeks, Life Notes will explore some of the ways God manifests in our lives. I will reflect on the God of the Bible, the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit), and my own encounters with this mystery of mysteries. John 1:18a tells us, “No one has ever seen God.” If that is true, how can I presume to write anything worthwhile about the “faces” of God?  My usage of faces here refers to God’s persona – God’s mask, if you will – or the different ways God appears to us on earth. In the way a versatile actor portrays many characters, so God manifests in our lives under many different faces.

The first manifestation from God recorded in the Bible (Genesis 1:1) is that of wind. “A wind from God swept over the waters.” Meteorologists tell us that winds are movements of air from areas of high atmospheric pressure to areas of low pressure. It is an informative description of unseen movement from point to point. Jesus tells Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish elite, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). One way God manifests is as unseen movement. We do not know where it comes from or where it goes, but we can perceive its motion around and through us when we pay attention.

A common illustration of unseen movement is the water cycle. Water flows from higher areas down into lakes, streams, and oceans where evaporation carries it back up into the atmosphere, only to fall back to earth as rain. It is a constantly occurring sequence, emptying and refilling, happening mostly outside of our conscious awareness, and it pervades every corner of the earth. Nothing is ever lost; it only changes form and location. Blood flow in the body is another example, where the heart pushes blood out to the organs and extremities, and then draws it back in. In respiration, we breathe in, and we breathe out. These movements of air, wind, water, and blood support the essence of all life, and they are animated by the unseen movement of God.

Of course, the Bible does not say that God is the wind. In the creation account in Genesis, a wind from God sweeps over the waters. It is this unseen movement from God that initiates creation, and everything else follows. God expresses in the constant, dynamic, and ever-flowing relationship between all parts of creation, connecting all that is, holding everything and everyone together by invisible bonds, including us.

God is on the move as an invisible, vibrant presence, sweeping over the depths of our lives, encouraging us to love and care for others as we learn to love and care for ourselves. Like water seeking the lowest places, God moves to where the pain is. If we are sufficiently attuned to God’s presence, we are carried along to the suffering, marginalized, and unfortunate persons along our journey for a reason – to relieve suffering and transform it for good. We (hopefully) experience this presence in return as family and friends surround us in our times of trouble, like angels carried our way from God. In those caring, healing expressions, we see the face of a loving, creating, and always present God. God’s movement is a continuous giving and receiving, emptying and refilling, breathing in and breathing out, under-girding everything we know in creation.

The face of God is on the move. Can you feel it?