Most of us have heard this verse in Romans 11:36 “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Paul is concluding his wonderfully complex expounding of Israel and the church. That’s a whole other post for another time. But what has been striking me recently has been the awareness that God is more aware of us then maybe we are of Him. When I say ‘awareness’ I simply mean the conviction deep down that God is of, to and through Him are all things.

All things( for the purpose of this post) means all stories and all sounds. It means all expressions and all the colors paint their strokes to point to the unknown. Everyone and everybody, whether male or female, or young or old has the longing towards God and towards love. So, when we read that God is in all things and around us and that ‘His invisible attributes’ testify to Him, then that also means all movies and television and all music. It means that the artist has been given the dreadful and wonderful task of telling a story that relates to people. Exaggeration and reality all collide as the streaks of hope, pain, suffering and purpose present themselves to all of us. This is a huge subject that I intend to expound on as time goes forward. But as you are reading movie reviews know that this truth of ‘TO, THROUGH, AND OF’ are what it is pointing to. We all have the longing to see God in what is out there.

This doesn’t mean we should look at and hear just anything. I do believe in purity of both the eyes and the ears. I believe that the trigger for much immorality can be what you allow your eyes to look at. Usually it means what you allow yourself to see on purpose, rather then just what you see at work and at the grocery store. I do believe in the eye gate, but I also want to contend to put the God lens on a little bit and see Him everywhere and in everything( given the proper boundaries). When you start to go down this path of not just believing that you are encountering God at church or in a sermon or when you listen to Christian radio, then you start to realize that you can actually encounter God no matter the time of day and no matter your physical location.

Enter into the story. God’s story.