Hi there, lovely reader… I have a story on my heart I want to share with you today.
I remember asking as a young child, wandering around in a brick church with a white steeple, “Why isn’t there a picture of God?”
I remember going from room to room, looking at each of the paintings and artwork, pausing always in front of the framed images of Jesus Christ and wondering…
If he’s God’s son sent to earth, then why isn’t there a picture of God here too?
I wanted so much to understand what God looked like, that He was the one who made all things possible. He who we were made in the image and likeness of. If we were made in his likeness, why can’t we see Him?
“Mikael, stop being so difficult,” I was told when I asked for the third time.
“Why isn’t there a picture of God here?”
When I stopped to imagine what I feel God might look like, all I felt was a cosmic cloud. He didn’t look like anyone I knew, but His presence was felt more than anything.
As a grown adult now, I know that I can see and find God everywhere. To quote one of my very favorite musicals:
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” – Les Miserables
With that in mind, I’ll tell you another story from church around this same time period.
I was in primary class, probably no more than 4 years old, and the teacher asked us, “What are things we must do every day?” We had to act out the action or activity in front of the class. Kids got up and acted out showering, eating, praying, dressing, and other basic day-to-day activities.
Of all the things to come into my head, the movie in my mind showed me Beauty and the Beast. The part right after the Beast has transformed back into a human, and Belle approaches him and finally sees him for who he is. The love that shines in her eyes upon seeing him as himself. The gesture of Belle’s hand running through his hair in a caring caress is what stood out. Loving someone. Yes, I thought, that’s something we need to do every day. I felt so excited to share what had come to me.
When it came to be my turn, I stood up, all excited that I found something so wonderful to remind everyone of. As close as I could replicate from the movie, I mimicked Belle’s hand gesture through my own hair and did my best to put a loving expression on my face like hers.
“Yes, Mikael, we must comb our hair every day!” the teacher exclaimed, kind of exasperatedly as another kid had already acted out grooming.
Immediately, I shook my head and said, “No.” That is not what I meant. Instead, I threw myself even further into the action hoping someone else, anyone else even among the kids, would recognize that I was imitating Belle loving the Beast. I think I even tried to act it out with another kid, touching their hair and looking in their eyes like Belle had to the prince.
For some reason, that was the only action I could think of to express what I felt was important for us to do every day.
We needed to LOVE every day.
Why couldn’t they see that? What was I doing wrong? Couldn’t they see that I was acting out a scene? Couldn’t they see the expression of love on my face? How could I make them see?
No one ended up understanding, and I was told to sit down to let someone else have a turn. And no one else acted out what I was trying to say, but I felt it was so important that it was said. However, I don’t remember saying anything to the primary teacher after, instead feeling ashamed and defeated that I couldn’t communicate what I yearned to express. I remember feeling stupid because no one could understand me. That my message hadn’t been clear. Like I had done something wrong.
That’s why there was no picture of God in the church halls I went to years and years ago. Because, at the heart of it all, God is the highest expression of love. And love shows up everywhere.
The essence of God—or however you wish to name a greater power—is with us all of the time and can be seen in a rosebud, a friendly face, a sunrise, a book or movie, family, friends, significant others, or anything that stirs anything within us. God lives within us all as the love and light that created us all. God simply wants to experience love through us in our human bodies.
God is there, even if we can’t see. What matters is that we believe in the highest frequency and vibration of all—love. That’s what God is. That’s where God resides. And that’s all found within you too. Because we were made in His likeness, our core, too, is love.
If you believe in Love, then there is no higher power than that.
In a way, the Beatles were right… Love is all you need.