The Inescapable Beauty of an Imperfect God

More thoughts. . .Michael Gray Griffith

Perfection is a destination that many strive for — artists, watchmakers, bridge builders, athletes. But while it is celebrated, it is never reached. Records continue to tumble. New materials are discovered or created, allowing us to build new bridges. Creation, by its nature — by its very act — is an endless journey.

Could this explain why, when children discover crayons, they start to create before they can even speak? And in the cupboards of parents everywhere are boxes full of these sacred scribbles.

Even fear creates monsters, and in turn, creates hate — and hate creates wars of all scales as it fights to survive and grow.

And yet, while the majority of people alive now — and who have ever lived — believe in some form of divine creator, we imprison this incomprehensible being in the cell of perfection.

Like removing crayons from a child, saying: “That house you drew — with red walls, a green roof, and smiling stick people — is the end of all human art. Its final destination. No need for you to ever draw again.”

So, knowing that perfection does not exist, why do we use it to incarcerate God?
Could it be fear?

Reality is not only complex but infinite — both externally and internally. In the Bible, we celebrate miracles. When, in truth, all that we can see — and can’t see — all that we are, are endless layers of miracles. So many miracles, we take them for granted.

Our very consciousness is such an incomprehensible miracle, science still does not have a working definition for it.

And yet we human beings have an extra miracle that I’m not sure any other creature has been gifted:

Appreciation. Awareness.

Could God himself have gifted us this so that he could have an audience? For we’ve been trying to capture the miracles around us — in the form of art — since we lived in caves.

Or is our ability to create a sliver of the divine’s own talent, gifted to us? Why?
To continue the journey he already began, in a timeless search for what he himself has never reached.

Not only does this journey offer us a profound purpose — the very concept of an imperfect God also opens up its own raft of possibilities.

The first of which, that I can see, is this: He is not in control of everything.
Which means true evil exists.
Which also means that we — every one of us — has been gifted fundamental freedoms.

Freedom of choice. Freedom of speech.
Two freedoms evil is always after — because it knows they are the parents of creation itself.

Evil, I believe, has executed a great coup. It has made many of us feel powerless — slaves in a current of technological change that is carrying us to a meaningless ocean, where we will flounder like redundant wrecks.

And the tragedy? This path is voluntary.

Fear — our greatest imprisoner — is using our perception of God to make us feel helpless.

When, in actual fact, if we could only find the courage to accept who we are — the species chosen to continue the divine’s creation — then perhaps we would pick up these two powerful freedoms, and begin creating a future that is a heaven on Earth for ourselves, for humans, and for all other creatures.

Perhaps — when you think of it that way — this just might be the true meaning of all our lives.

And before you dismiss this, why not filter the concept through your other great freedom — your freedom to think for yourself?

Michael Gray Griffith