Kreitsauce's Musings

I’m sure most of you played with a jack-in-the-box when you were a kid. I couldn’t honestly say that I enjoyed those contraptions. They were pretty basic: turn the handle, listen to the song, out comes the….doll? Basic but dependable, that’s Jack. Unfortunately, some people seem to think that God is that way.

For some people, I should be able to pray this prayer and “pow!” out leaps God from wherever He spends most of His time, and grants my wish….I mean prayer. Christians sometimes get that attitude. They start to have an attitude of , as one pastor put it, “Gimme, gimme; my name’s Jimmy!”

Of course, atheists also treat God that way. Richard Dawkins wants to analyze God scientifically in his The God Delusion. He tells his readers how God “should” behave since He would be bound to the laws of physics. Why should God have to follow the physical laws of the universe? He made them, so why should He be put under them?

Dawkins then turns to the subject of prayer, and discusses the number of prayers that get “answered.” Not surprisingly, Dawkins finds that God doesn’t seem to answer every prayer by saying “Yes, absolutely, I’ll get right on it, sir!”

Who says God has to behave in a way that Dawkins or anyone thinks He should?  If God isn’t the Force from Star Wars, can’t He do things in a personal and- dare I say it- subjective way? He claims to be a Person, and for my part I believe Him. Oh, but He does answer. “No” is an answer. “Wait” is an answer. Sometimes silence is even an answer. “Yes” is an answer too, but Dawkins tends to chalk that up to chance.

Christianity doesn’t teach that God is a children’s toy that should follow a basic set of rules. God is a Person, and a very complex Person at that. Christianity doesn’t portray God as a genii or jack-in-the-box. To borrow from C. S. Lewis, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is NOT a tame lion. Prayer, then, is more than just asking and receiving. It’s about asking and embracing God Himself.