Did you ever hear that term? It can mean a variety of things. It may be playacting—or just gesturing—without the use of words. Or it may be applied to an exaggerated display of behavior. It may be associated with a type of stage production where a well-known story is presented in a comical manner primarily through gestures. Such presentations are often derived from nursery rhymes or children’s stories. It’s entertainment: something to make you laugh or perhaps something to remind you of a past event. It’s also been used to explore the human condition, wrestling with questions regarding the nature of our existence, focusing on how we understand ourselves and seeking to establish meaning in our existence in various ways. For Christians this may seem irrelevant. We know who we are, we know where we came from and, hopefully, we know where we’re going. It’s the world that’s confused, right? The unbelieving culture reflects a mishmash of ideas that form the basis for self-understanding—if such questions are considered at all. Many, if not most, people don’t give a lot of attention to such ideas, the focus is on the immediate: what is directly in front of them, what affects them from day to day. Making ends meet, satisfying the desires of the mind and body, finding diversion; these are the things that get most people’s attention. Then occasionally they’re forced to ask more important questions about their existence when unexpected events happen: accidents, illness…or maybe something good like winning the lottery! Who knows? But Christians know who they are, where they’re going…and why. They don’t need exaggerated story-telling to wrestle with the features of the human condition. They just need a reminder, something that represents what they know already; perhaps a rehearsal of the nativity, or the crucifixion of our Savior.

Such reminders can be represented in a “diorama.” That’s another interesting term to consider. Dioramas are three-dimensional presentations of significant scenes. Probably the most important diorama that we’re familiar with is the nativity scene, also called a crèche. We might set those out during the Christmas season as part of our holiday decorations; they’re part of the festive arrangements that help us focus on the inauguration of our salvation. I say inauguration because it represents the beginning of what became a revelation of what God has been doing all along since we decided to go our own way in the Garden of Eden. Our Lord began by providing a way to cover up our shame when he gave the animal skins to Adam and Eve, showing that the shedding of blood was necessary for our redemption. The Passover from destruction used the shedding of blood to provide for an escape from servitude when Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. And the greatest sacrifice that could be made for all mankind was the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah who was nailed to the cross, making a way for us to be reborn with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and securing the promise of eternal life in the presence of our Lord. That’s really the diorama that we should celebrate with: Christ on the cross. But we don’t see too many of those at Christmas…or at Easter for that matter.

Why am I focusing on this? I’m asking us to consider anew how we understand our faith in the Christ. As usual I’m speaking to evangelicals: the “born again” people who know and confess their knowledge of the Christ, giving attention to the Word of God, affirming—and celebrating—what Jesus did on the cross which ushered in a new era in which we’re able to know our God on a personal basis! The problem is we’re still surrounded by a fallen world; a world that’s populated with lost people trying to make sense of their existence. In saying this I’m not going back to the longstanding conflict between evolutionists and creationists who focus on proofs for the nature of our existence. Proof on both sides can be explained away, and in the end the argument amounts to a conflict of investments that both sides make to support their views. Here I’m speaking to the creationists who recognize not only the relevance of the divine decree for our existence, but also take their stand in recognizing a God who can be known…a God who is known and acknowledged. What I’m trying to do here is to ask my fellow evangelicals to consider anew how they go about their business as believers in a relevant God. How do we approach life informed by our knowledge of the Lord?

Which brings up another question: how do we know the Lord? I’m not asking: how do we know God exists? I’m asking, how do we know the Lord? How do we live our lives informed by our knowledge of God? We can know about God by reading Scripture. We can “hear” from the Lord through prayer. We can learn about the Lord through fellowship with our church. Nevertheless, the question remains: how do we know the Lord? Maybe another way of putting it is: what characteristics describe the nature of our fellowship with God? It’s been my experience that the connections that I’ve had with other people have taken various forms. The nature of these relationships was affected by a variety of things. How was I connected to them? What kind of power did they have to affect me? What did I think of them—did I like or dislike them? How well do I know them? Which brings up other questions like: do I really know them? Do I want to know them? Do I want to be known by them? Which points to another aspect of this: how do I know who they are? Some people are friends for life. Others we know because they serve our purposes for a limited period of time. Some acquaintances we must know but wish we didn’t. Others are so important to us that we can’t imagine not knowing them. The connections we have fall into various categories: friends, relatives, employers, administrators, teachers, lovers, enemies; everybody’s got them…right?

The question that I would like to ask here is: how do we know them? The answer probably depends on who they are to us. Some people we only know in passing. They check our identification as we enter a building, or take our money—read debit card—when we make a purchase. Others we know because we converse with them regularly: administrators and teachers interact with us for various reasons. Members of our family stay in touch with us—or not—through regular conversation, texting…email. Spouses engage us through conversation at least, along with a plethora of other avenues of communication—something I’m only beginning to learn about.

This leads me to the whole reason for having this discussion, which is how do we communicate with our God? How do we understand Him? How do we understand our relationship with Him? How do we maintain our relationship with Him? The knee jerk answer is we read our Bible, we pray, we commiserate with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can do all that, but do we really know the Lord in the process? How do we keep track of Him…now? Is He just an idea that we read about, or talk about? Certainly we must start with the Bible and the testimony of our brothers and sisters, but the question is: do we really know Him in the process? We see the cross displayed in church but do we really know Him? We have ideas about Him displayed for us in various ways: pictures, movies, testimonies, symbols. But do we really know Him? Do we really know who He is? What I’m prodding us to do is to examine ourselves in His light and consider how we know Him; to consider not just the basis for our knowledge of Him, but to consider how we go about knowing Him. Is what we rely on to connect with Him a diorama of sorts: a picture or presentation of His existence that symbolizes His reality? Is what we call our walk with God derived from a pantomime that plays out in our minds but lacks the full substance of His presence in our lives? In thinking about this I’m reminded of Paul’s challenge to the Ephesians.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

What I’m suggesting is that as modern believers informed by the parameters of modern Western…American culture, we’ve taken our cues for grasping the significance of the Gospel from a framework of thought that may not be sufficient to fully appreciate the substance of our Lord’s provision in Christ; settling instead for a facsimile…expressed in a pantomime. That’s abstract I know, and I’m not going to be able to unpack it in a sufficient way in this post. What I can do is whet your appetite in order to prompt you to press for a greater understanding of the Lord and the “good news” of the Gospel; to ask Him to enhance your grasp of what is an amazing provision through Jesus our Messiah. Knowing the Lord can’t be summed in a collection of ideas because God is profound in the extreme. He is who He is, and we stand before Him in awe. The ideas that inform us about God provide a baseline for understanding Him and we need to hold on to them. But the revelation that they introduce to us is a revelation that is inexhaustible because our God is inexhaustible, infinite, everlasting…and profound.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;

Speak of all His wonders.

Glory in His holy name;

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

(1 Chronicles 16:8-11)

Halleluiah!