Your Spiritual Pathway To God

Your Spiritual Pathway to God

Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.

Deuteronomy 31:6

A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.” The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”^a

We sometimes think everyone sees God and how to relate to him exactly as we do. In fact, our focus can become so narrow that we expect everyone else—especially our spouses—to see him the very same way. And that’s a terrible mistake for most married couples. Why? Because each person has unique experiences of learning God’s character. Some people have gone through life experiencing a great sense of his justice or his joy. Others may have spent years marveling at the grace and protection that he has personally shown them. Is God limited to being more about justice or joy or grace or protection? Not at all—he embodies all those qualities.

Some time ago we were speaking at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. Bill Hybels, the pastor of this great church, told us about a book that has since helped us greatly in our desire to deepen our own level of spiritual intimacy as a couple. So much so that we feel compelled to share with you the gist of its message. The book is called Sacred Pathways, and Gary Thomas is the author. Though the book is not written with couples in mind, we immediately saw the application of Gary’s message to easing the soul-searching ache for spiritual connectedness that so many couples experience. In fact, we recently talked with Gary about our observation, and he was quick to confess that his own marriage was the catalyst for his thinking. “I knew my wife loved God,” he said, “but I didn’t understand why she didn’t relate to him the way I did.”

So how about the two of you? How do your spiritual pathways to God differ?

The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.

—Edna St. Vincent Millay

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