I found this image while walking along U Street in DC. I am sure there are many ways of interpreting this bit of street art, but the pastor in me sees God emerging from the clouds, with a look of concern, telling the person passing underneath that they are doing "it" wrong.
I guess part of the reason that I see that as the action is that if I am completely honest, there are times I wish God would come down and say "HEY, YOUR DOING IT WRONG" to folks that find ways to propagate violence or discrimination or pretty much the whole process of making certain folks 'other'.
Yet, the reality is, there are probably a whole bunch of people that wish that God would come down and tell me I am doing it wrong, given my support of LGBT rights in the church, my pro-choice stance or my desire to be nuanced with religion, instead of declarative, and thats probably just the tip of the iceberg.
I guess the question then begs itself, would God even say something like that? Would the God presented in the Gospels come out of the clouds and tell someone "Your Doing it Wrong". Seems to me that if God was going to come out of a cloud and say anything, it would be "I Love You" or "Your Sins are Forgiven"
This is maybe one of the greatest challenges of living into the Love of Christ, is that we are called to a ministry of reconciliation, that we are called to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Or that the greatest commandment is to Love God above all else, and Love your neighbor as yourself. Or that Christ's departing words to the disciples included "Love one another as I have Loved you".
Its hard to reconcile with certain people, its hard to love certain people, its hard to forgive certain people, and yet that is exactly what God is asking us to do.
Maybe the artist of this work had no intention of it representing the divine, but it certainly gets me thinking...
