What God cannot do
Be deceived by appearances.
In The Joy Bringer, Walter C. Lanyon writes:
God cannot be sick, and 'What God cannot do man need not attempt.' Is there anything clearer than this –that in being sick, poor, or unhappy we are apparently doing something which the Creator of the heavens and earth cannot do.
Lanyon, among others, helps me see the never-ending theme of the Bible, best described by Jesus as "judge not by appearances" (John 7:24).
It begins in the beginning. From Genesis, Chapter 3:
The LORD God told them, '‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
The woman's senses told her that it "made sense" to eat from this tree. The woman and man created problems for themselves because they judged the fruit of the tree by appearances.
What the woman and man both forgot is that they were "like God" already, made in God's image (Genesis 1:26). They were divine beings dwelling in human bodies. But they let their thinking get reversed, and imagined that if they do something as humans in the external world, they would become more God-like than they already were.
Whatever the "fruit" that they "ate" may have been, what these two sought was a worldly solution to a non-problem. They believed things that weren't true. Their actions triggered a natural process that led to their deaths, and created ideas like sickness, unhappiness, and poverty.
Every other Biblical story - and I view them all as allegorical rather than historical - follows a pattern of blessings when there’s faith in God, and problems when humans react to external circumstances, when they "judge by appearances" and follow their own (mis)understanding.
If this way of looking at the Bible is true, then following our true, divine selves is to walk unafraid no matter how threatening the external world may seem. It is to share everything, because we have no fear of lack.
Being sick, poor, or unhappy is something our divine, God-like selves cannot do.
James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoy his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution.
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