“The most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”- A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
In Chapter 7 (“Good God”) of A Million Little Miracles, Mark Batterson opens with a narrative of legendary photographer Stephen Wilkes. Wilkes conceived and executed a series of shoots he called Day to Night. For example, Wilkes beautifully captured landscapes like El Capitan in Yosemite. He also shot cityscapes like the Brooklyn Bridge and epic events such as the Tour de France.
Hence, Wilkes captured more than one moment in a single photograph. As a result, he collapsed time and compressed the best moments of the day into a single image. Most significantly, Mark stresses, each of the six days of creation is a composite picture.
Certainly, Mark notes, the Bible is a big book. But what’s the big idea, the composite picture? When you read the Bible from cover to cover, Mark asserts, you come to one inevitable, undeniable, and incontrovertible truth. That truth? God is God, and we’re not. In addition, someday all of us will bow before the throne of God. Also, Mark quips this newsflash: He won’t be sitting on it, and neither will we!
Furthermore, Pastor Batterson notes, many ways exist to cliffnote Scripture. For example, his spiritual father, Dick Foth, uses four phrases: God left His place, He came to our place, He took our place, then He invites us back to His place.
However, no matter how you summarize Scripture, progressive revelation serves as the plotline. Genesis to Revelation presents a composite picture of a good God. Like Wilkes Day to Night photos, it’s a time-lapse revelation of God’s heart toward us.
In conclusion, Pastor Batterson states, like Stephen Wilkes in his darkroom, each of us stitches together our own composite picture of God. Maybe, Mark muses, that’s why Satan’s original tactic involved calling God’s goodness into question.
Today’s question: What Bible verses counter your tendency toward a secret law of the soul? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Trying them on for size”