How do you picture the face of God? Does She smile with you? Does He gaze down with a stern expression? Are Their eyes totally unreadable?
When a writing workshop asked me to write something that approached God from an unexpected angle, I began thinking through the language of Psalm 139, which seems to suggest an all-knowing and rather impassive God. I wrote the poem below – “Known” – as I wondered what it might mean for God to have another set of characteristics, as well: an ability to experience surprise and to feel such things as grief.
Known
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
– Psalm 139: 4
I doubt you knew the color my hair
would turn, so bright and pink (surprising me
as well for all the bottle said). You grinned
and laughed out loud with me, I do believe.
And surely your breath caught like mine when the
phone call came, as love is never ready
for some things, even when we know they’ll come
some day. What heart won’t gasp and halt just then?
Perhaps it makes no sense to imagine
you’d wonder with us at our days, as much
a mess as anything, but then I know
you do tend toward the inexplicable.
I’m still game for this life, and maybe more
if you’ll let me take your hand as we go.
– Callie J. Smith
Callie J. Smith 
What a beautiful post, Callie! There is so much that surprises and catches us off guard as we journey through life, and it is inspiring food for thought to think about whether and how God shares in this and relates to us as we experience it.
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Yes! The unexpected marks so much of our experience. It’s like the question of whether and how God shares in it is a way of … well, meditating on God.
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