The Face of God

Something I wrote based on my personal Christian faith and Jedi beliefs after watching a TV special on 'The Face of God' about people who see the image of God/Jesus/the Saints. My thoughts get a little jumbled and run together at times, but I would love any discussion you all have!


There are thousands of Christians each year that flock to certain sacred spots in hopes of seeing images of God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or one of the Saints. There are even some who go out into the desert and take Polaroid pictures of the sun so they can look for the face of God in the photos. These are ways that humans create physical manifestations of their faith. That beings up the question, do you need proof to believe, and is belief the same as faith? To me, faith is believing, with or without rational proof.

Part of the Christian faith is belief in the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge that thanks to Jesus Christ God is among humanity always. However, God does not always manifest through physical or visible means because God is not limited to the physical world. God appears through our actions. The face of God is seen in those who work for social justice as well as in those who perform small acts of kindness to others. In the Bible it says humanity was created in God’s image, yet sometimes it is hard for that image to show through the physical toils and stresses of our lives. Acting on behalf of justice is not always easy, and action involves more effort than inaction. This is when it is necessary to open oneself to the power of the Holy Spirit and go the extra mile to allow God’s agapic love to work through your words and deeds.

Opening oneself to the Force requires the same faith as opening yourself to the Holy Spirit. Both are powerful divine manifests, possibly the same divine manifest but with different names for different purposes, capable of working through us humans if we allow it. However, sometimes following the will of the Force is not easy, nor is it easy to give up complete control. Part of our inherit free-will as humans implies the choice to have faith and allow a greater power to work through us or influence us. That same free-will means that all good works are not simply due to the Force, but due to our human desire to produce good works and to allow them to happen

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection, And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations? Who can spread his hours before him, saying, \"This for God and this for myself; this is for my soul, and this other for my body?\"

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The freest song comes not through bars and wires. And he to whom worshiping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter into it take with you your all. Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight. For in revere you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all people: For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.

From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

That is very beautifully said! Is the whole quote from 'The Prophet' or just the last part? (I just added 'The Prophet' to my personal reading list because now I'm intrigued)

Here is the entire text of The Prophet.

http://leb.net/~mira/works/prophet/prophet.html

Nice post Kira! I enjoyed reading it, thank you for posting it!