By John Golling
Registrar and Director of Student Life
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1
What are your earliest memories of thinking about God? Do you recall your first experiences of God? How did they shape your forming ideas about who God is?
When I was young, we never went to church unless we happened to be visiting our California family. Whenever we visited my grandparents, “Yaya and Papou”, we would also attend service at the Greek Orthodox Church.
Going into the massive church felt like entering into another world. In the entryway, there were paintings and icons everywhere, colorful depictions of angels and holy people, each with a gleaming, golden halo around their head.
We would walk in, and Yaya would put some cash into a little box and take a candle from a box, light it and set it up in some sand next to at least a hundred other lit candles. The flames flickered and cast flashing beams of light onto a painting of a woman on a throne holding a child, and a spear that was thrust through the head of a serpent at their feet. It was kind of bloody and very strange.
Then we would make our way through wooden doors decorated with carvings and gold ornaments, and we would walk into a cathedral, with long pews, high marble pillars, and paintings between each pillar. These paintings seemed to tell a story through pictures, kind of like a children’s book, but this was NOT a children’s story!
The paintings depicted the life of Christ going from the left wall, across the front, onto the right wall. In the very center was Jesus on the cross, wearing a single piece of cloth, and his body was bloodied, bruised and cut up. This was quite disturbing to me as a small child. But the pictures to the right of that were of Jesus – alive from the dead! He appeared to his disciples, showed them his scarred hands, and then went up into the sky.
I couldn’t understand anything that was said during the service, but I remember the colorful decorations, the extravagant robes, the smell of the incense and the sound of the bells on the chain that held the round, metal device that gave off the fragrant smoke.
To this day, I can identify the smell of that incense and it takes me back to that place. This was my first introduction to the story of Jesus and was formative in my understanding of God and what He is like.
From this, I began to understand (without words) the transcendence of God- He is greater than anything we can see and operates above and outside of our world, as well as the imminent presence of God- God is here now, present with us, and He has entered into the physical realm of time, space, creation and history.
For the next several weeks, I am sharing about those people and events that impacted my spiritual journey, my life as a disciple of Jesus, and how God led me to Covenant Bible Seminary. I hope to hear from you, and learn about your journey with Christ, also.
What are your earliest memories of thinking about God?
How did they shape your forming ideas about who God is?
What was your first introduction to Jesus?
Are there sights, smells or sounds that take you back to your first experiences of God, Jesus or church?
What feelings come up for you when you think of those memories?
Peace,
John Golling
