{"id":49,"date":"2016-11-03T15:35:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T19:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/wheelsfaith\/?p=49"},"modified":"2016-11-04T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:06:12","slug":"gods-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wheelsfaith\/2016\/11\/gods-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When does a child become self-aware?<\/p>\n

When a child first sees himself in a mirror he touches the mirror.\u00a0 He does not know it is his reflection.\u00a0 Later, around the age of two, when the child looks in the mirror she instead touches her face.\u00a0 In that moment her self-identity begins to take shape.\u00a0 The child says, \u201cI.\u201d Self-awareness begins to form.<\/p>\n

In Hebrew \u201cAni\u201d means \u201cI.\u201d\u00a0 This word does not appear in the Torah until this week.\u00a0 There appears little self-awareness exhibited by Adam and Eve, who are unaware of their nakedness and blame each other, as well as God, for their own failings.\u00a0 There is plenty of \u201cyou\u201d but no \u201cI.\u201d\u00a0 Cain and Abel are so lacking in introspection that they do not understand the pain they cause each other, leading to the first murder.<\/p>\n

And then the \u201cI\u201d appears.\u00a0 Ani is first discovered in the story of Noah and the flood.\u00a0 It is God who first utters the word, Ani.\u00a0 \u201cAnd God said to Noah and his sons with him, \u2018I now establish My covenant with you and your offspring to come, and with every living thing that is with you\u2026never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.\u2019\u201d (Genesis 9:8-11)<\/p>\n

God becomes self-aware.\u00a0 The \u201cI\u201d resounds in a promise.\u00a0 In fact it is first contemplated in response to Noah\u2019s spontaneous offering.\u00a0 \u201cThe Lord smelled the pleasing odor, and the Lord said to Himself: \u2018Never again will I doom the earth because of man\u2026\u2019\u201d (Genesis 8:20-21)\u00a0 It is conjured by Noah\u2019s sacrifice.\u00a0 Of course, God cannot smell, but God most certainly becomes self-aware in response to Noah\u2019s actions, and perhaps, in response to ours.<\/p>\n

Martin Buber argues in his seminal work, I and Thou,<\/em> that our world is organized by our relationships.\u00a0 For Buber, as David Brooks recently reminds us<\/a>, there is no \u201cI.\u201d\u00a0 There is only I-It or I-Thou.\u00a0 The \u201cI\u201d only exists in relation to another.\u00a0 Most of our relationships are utilitarian and therefore I-It.\u00a0 Some are I-Thou.\u00a0 It is these that offer a glimmer of the divine.\u00a0 In I-Thou there is a mutuality of care and concern.\u00a0 \u201cAll real living is meeting,\u201d Buber observed.\u00a0 The \u201cI\u201d never exits alone.\u00a0 It can only be found in the promise of another.<\/p>\n

Is it possible that God can only be God in relationship with human beings?\u00a0 I wonder.\u00a0 What if the entire Bible is not about us but instead about God?\u00a0 What if it is not about our search for God but instead God\u2019s quest for us and in that search, the discovery of God\u2019s own self-awareness? Abraham Joshua Heschel writes (in his theological treatise, God in Search of Man):<\/em> \u201cThis is the status of the Bible in modern life: it is a sublime answer, but we do not know the question any more. Unless we recover the question, there is no hope of understanding the Bible.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps the question is not ours, but God\u2019s.\u00a0 Perhaps the search is not our own.\u00a0 Heschel reminds us: it is instead God\u2019s search.<\/p>\n

And God asks us again and again: why are you created?<\/p>\n

I begin to recover, and reformulate, an answer.<\/p>\n

We are fashioned to be God\u2019s mirror.\u00a0 We were created in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

God is only God because of us.<\/p>\n

God can only be God with us.<\/p>\n

We are the mirror that God holds.<\/p>\n

The questioning continues.<\/p>\n

What is the image we wish for God to see?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When does a child become self-aware? When a child first sees himself in a mirror he touches the mirror.\u00a0 He does not know it is his reflection.\u00a0 Later, around the age of two, when the child looks in the mirror she instead touches her face.\u00a0 In that moment her self-identity begins to take shape.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2763,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGod's Mirror<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When does a child become self-aware? 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