God’s like that

In all the pain of the past months, there have been surprising moments of great joy. One of them was the day that this picture was put up in honour of Trevor in the hall of the primary school where I am chaplain. The outline was drawn by an artist at school and every child played a part in painting it. Different classes embroidered the leaves by hand. It is life-size and one of the most stunning pictures of the love of God that I have ever seen.

Those of you who knew Trev will remember how he loved to act out the story of the Prodigal Son who literally had to turn round 180 degrees to stop going his own way and come back to his dad. Trev would describe how God always runs to meet us when we come back to him and then throws his arms around us. The artist told me that the headteacher of the school (who became a Christian through Trevor and Holy Trinity Church) insisted that this picture had to depict that all-embracing love.

I had the huge privilege of talking to the kids about this painting and the love of God. I told them that I knew that they would forget lots of things about their school when they left but I wanted them to remember this thing – that’s what God is like. Whenever you turn round to come back to him – that’s what God’s like. He hurls his arms around you to draw you near.

Trev’s final talk was on this verse – “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28) This was just one of a number of moments where I have seen God doing exactly that for us.

What’s God like? God’s like that.