I'm often guilty of looking at some of the most faithful people in my community, figuring out why they are so faithful and so Godly, and then how I could maybe be a little deeper in my faith by being like them. While this may not be the best approach sometimes, we all do it. It is a positive part, however, of being in community.
A quality that keeps coming up when I look at these spiritual superstars is their "translucency." This is to say that sometimes, it's like your looking at God, not a person. What makes someone translucent? And if someone can be translucent, can something be translucent?
I often ask the latter question myself in school. For instance, in my eleventh grade English class, we would read various news articles about a variety of issues, from the presidential election to murder cases, and from miracle stories of someone being saved to controversies that would divide the class in half. Occasionally, we would come across the story about someone who stood up for humanity, sometimes in the smallest way possible, but their love for people and thirst for change was beyond inspiring. My first reaction was "that is divine translucency at its greatest," but would others think the same thing?
Of course, not everyone would associate that story with God's love being shown through that person. However, that means that God's love is enormously broad. We are being shown God's image in countless ways that we don't even know.
I believe our God is much broader than anyone can imagine, and I also believe heaven will be a surprise to many of the people who enter the pearl gates. If our God is so broad, perhaps his community of followers is much broader than we can ever know as well.
This reminds me of one of my favorite hymns:
"For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed; There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head."
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