With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
It has been said that in the beginning God created humankind in His own image and likeness, and ever since humankind has been trying to return the favor.
That's a joke; but seriously, how is it that God can seem to become all things to all people? Is God not the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow? How can it be then that, as the psalmist says, God can be merciful to some and yet seem torturous to others?
My sense is that perhaps we don't so much make God in our likeness as we do receive Him according to our character.
I am thinking here of what Augustine said about Pharaoh. How is it that, Augustine asked, that God could harden the heart of Pharaoh? He answered by drawing a parallel to the sun. The sun melts wax and ice cream but it also dries mud and hardens clay. How is this possible? The answer lies in the character and makeup of that which feels the heat.
For some God is a warm and purifying comfort -- full of mercy. But for others the very thought of God hardens the heart into rock hard bitterness and resentment. When that happens it may say a lot more about their character and makeup than it does about God's.
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