G is for GOD

I remember once, when I was at secondary school, almost being run down by a car on a busy road. My mate was not so fortunate. He was just a few steps in front of me and in the gathering dusk and a multitude of car and street lights had just not noticed the Volkswagen Beetle coming around the corner. To be honest, neither had I, but for some reason I paused, even in my impatience to cross the road and that moment allowed me time to see the car in my peripheral vision and take action. I remember tearing my trouser leg as I jumped back towards the pavement but my mate ended up with a lot of bruising that could have been worse if the driver hadn't spotted him just in time.

When I was eleven, I took up the guitar. I don't know why I chose it as I already had been learning the piano for several years but the six string was to become my instrument ever since and although I have continued to dabble at the ivories, it is the guitar that I always turn to when we sing.

When the boys were old enough and wife and I were still singing at churches and coffee bars around the country, we almost always took them with us. They always tried to help tidy away leads and equipment and more often than not probably hindered more than they helped. Often their playful behaviour in the front row was distracting to more than just their mum and dad, but they got a taste for music and a few years ago, were proficient enough to join us in a band. Now both lead worship at different times and often together.

When I went to university, I studied agriculture but I knew that I probably wouldn't have a career in the subject, even though I was reared on a farm. When the opportunity came to pursue a teaching career, I decided to pursue it and ended up in a classroom, teaching much of the Biology and Chemistry I had learned at university. Yet I never imagined I would end up teaching with my wife in a little primary school only a mile or so from home, the same little school that I had attended as a child. When I met wife for the first time, I guess we both knew that we had found our life partner and soul mate.

You might call it all fate. I call it God. When I look back at different points in my life, I begin to see His hand at work for I believe that He has a plan for my life. I may not always make the decisions that I am meant to make but somehow He still seems to be able to find a way to bring me to where He wants me to be.

So how can I describe Him? The Bible uses many different words including Jehovah, Yahweh, Father, Lord, but I love that Old Testament description that He used of Himself when speaking to Moses before he went to deliver the Israelites. He said, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " What a wonderful description of the God I serve, the God in whom I believe and the God who has watched over me all of my life. To be 'I AM' is to be in the present tense, alive and living today in the twenty first century. But to be 'I AM' is also to be in the past tense because God was 'I AM' in the days of Moses. Yet to be 'I AM' is also the future because tomorrow He will still be the same as He is today and His hand will still be upon my life. In my days of Sunday school, many years ago, I learnt, in my catechism, that 'God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth' I guess that about sums the matter up better than I could ever do. Except to say that in Him I find love and care for me that is unconditional and that I don't deserve. And while He is the great 'I AM', with the power over the whole universe, He is also my own personal friend because He wants to be. How good is that!