Observing God
Let us clarify our aim. We aim to spot nothing less than God himself. I will give a few words of advice to help prepare the casual observer. There is an important distinction between observing God and observing birds. The awesome nature of God can overwhelm the observer. We must take precautions. As to God’s appearance, one cannot gaze upon God and survive without the correct use of suitable equipment. A good field guide always keeps in mind observer safety. In addition, we must consider God’s invisibility, which means God’s appearance is not as well-documented as that of birds. Do not be perturbed, our quest is not stymied, as we shall soon discover.
We will start by listing the distinguishing features of God to aid the observer in field identification. I sought the help of an expert at the university’s School of Theology where I found the office of Dr Freeman Lee. Freeman came from Hong Kong, which was where he first saw God. Although his experience gave me a high regard for him, I was surprised that his office was as tiny as mine was. He invited me in saying he was not doing anything special. I could see he was marking student essays, which confirmed it for me. I squeezed in to a chair opposite him at his desk, explained my assignment and asked Freeman for God’s distinguishing features. In my pocket was my bird watcher’s notebook, which I carry with me everywhere. Out came my notebook, and I wrote the heading “Species Attributes”.
“It shouldn’t be too hard,” said Dr Lee, “There is only one God. Only one species, one individual. God is who he is.” Dr Lee spoke English well and had a practiced oriental accent. Freeman is short of stature, with straight black hair, glasses, and I would find him difficult to pick out in a crowd of Chinese people. Freeman tells me he has the same problem with westerners.
“Yes, I am sure there is only one God but when out in the wild, how do I single out God. What does he look like?” I said trying to direct Freeman to my point of interest.
“Heck, everything you see displays his nature, except for the nasty things that display his nature in negative. God is easily distinguished from other things, because God made all the other things,” explained Dr Lee.
“Okay, so God is distinguished by not having been made, and having made everything else,” I said writing in my notebook. “What features will help us identify God?”
“Well,” said Dr Lee thinking how to simplify it for a field guide. He smiled as he had an idea. “There are ‘The Three Omnies’.”
“Ah, like ‘The Three Amigos’,” I said taking his bait.
“No, not like ‘The Three Amigos’ at all,” said Dr Lee amused that I had fallen for it. “God is One Amigo. As Creator of everything, God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, which means God is everywhere, is all-powerful, and knows everything. ‘The Three Omnies’.”
“I can imagine my students getting excited and thinking, ‘If God is everywhere we will have no problem finding our Amigo’.” My ploy to put this remark into the mouths of my students was to ensure I did not appear stupid.
“I’m sure, Albert, you will think up a reply such as, ‘yes and no’, or ‘birds are everywhere too’. There must be some reason for the market in field guides.” Dr Lee could be inscrutable.
He continued, “Unlike the Three Amigos, God is not a second rate actor. When God acts, things happen and continue that way until God determines otherwise. One of God’s pastimes is upholding the universe. People observation is another.”
“What?” I said surprised. “I’m writing about observing God, not God observing us.”
Dr Lee replied, “It’s very different from train spotting, Albert, but if God was not interested in observing us, we could not observe him.”
“Oh well, that’s all right then.”
Dr Lee smiled and nodded. He continued, “When considering God's habitat, omnipresence needs to be qualified. Why live in a slum if you own a mansion? God's presence on earth is somewhat at arm's length compared to his presence in heaven. Although heaven is part of creation, it isn’t despoiled by wars, pollution and… well, people. God keeps heaven separate from what we call the universe to prevent it from
getting polluted.”
“Pollution, yes,” I said taking notes.
Dr Lee smiled and went on, “Besides, this isn’t the end of the matter. If it were, you could not find God anywhere. God obviously did not give up on the universe. If God gave up on the world, it wouldn’t be here. God forecasted pollution but made the world anyhow. He even maintains its polluted existence. So, it must be possible to see God.”
“Good,” I said with great relief, struggling to follow Dr Lee’s reasoning.
“Speaking of goodness,” said Dr Lee.
“I was?”
“Goodness is an attribute of God’s integrity. God’s goodness is sometimes called omni-benevolence, which would be the fourth of ‘The Three Omnies’, but we can’t have that. Human beings fall short of perfection in goodness and integrity, and things that are unlike just don’t mix. Perfection and imperfection, good and bad.”
“Publishers and authors?” I added to the list.
Dr Lee ignored my contribution, “… they cannot have a cordial meeting. It is because of God’s goodness he prevents the inadvertent observer stumbling upon him and being dazzled to death by his glorious majesty. One might think that this precludes us from God observation, but as the song says, ‘it ain’t necessarily so’.”
Like all good mystery writers, I will leave the disclosure of this mystery until near the end. [Note from Dorothy: No peaking!]. Besides, Dr Lee was in full lecturing mode. I was glad I was taking notes.
“Now, ‘The Three Twins’ display God’s goodness.”
“Twins!” I exclaimed. Dr Lee’s lectures must have been a riot of metaphors. I am sure he confused his students a treat.
“Yes, twin attributes: holy and righteous, faithful and true, gracious and merciful. They display God’s goodness.” This was getting too technical for a field guide lecturer, but I continued writing.
“There is something else about God, not in the class of species attributes,” Dr Lee said reading the heading in my notebook. “Because of God’s role as Creator of everything, his relations with creation are unique, giving rise to ‘The Three Relations’.”
“God has relatives?” I asked.
“Eternity, sovereignty, and providence.” Lee counted off with his fingers. He paused while I, resembling one of his flustered students, listed his points in my notebook.
“When God created things out of nothing, new relationships were made that are utterly perplexing for us created beings. For instance, our creation in time makes it difficult for us to understand God who upholds creation from the outside, so to speak. Although God does not change in his nature, he can respond to changes inside his creation. This is why it’s possible for us to meet him.”
“It does?” I asked.
“Yes, but there is a downside. We can cope with God being everywhere always. We even expect God to rule over creation, but when things go wrong, we use ‘The Three Relations’ to blame God. Don’t forget God is good everywhere, always, and in every circumstance. We defend human shortcomings by blaming God for making us.”
“There are two sides to every story?” I suggested.
“It’s true that God has a case against us. This raises the interesting philosophical controversy over free will. If we assume God has free will, and if God created humans with even a small measure of free will, we might suspect that our freedom limits God's sovereignty.”
“Because we have a say in the future?” I asked.
Dr Lee continued, “Yes. But the future does not yet exist. So it cannot be any great harm to God's sovereignty if he gives us a say in future outcomes. God can accurately predict what will happen, so his omniscience remains intact. God still has the final overriding power over everything, so his omnipotence still applies. As for how God’s predictive knowledge of the future and human free will can coexist, perhaps you should go over to the Philosophy Department.”
“Yes,” I said with no intention whatsoever of investigating the esoteric details of this line of reasoning which are best confined to the Philosophy Department. I thanked Freeman for his time and extracted myself from his tiny office.
I came away from the meeting pleased with what I had learnt. Dr Lee’s species description will be invaluable, and his assertion that it must be possible to observe God was a great reassurance.