The Onion

Many times I have heard that God deals with us in layers. 

In His mercy and graciousness, He does not have us deal with all of our stuff all at once, but rather He shows us one area of our life that He says it's time to deal with. It's time to let go or heal or forgive or etc. Then once we have victory in that area He will start showing us another area - thus He works on our layers.

But this morning at church, things were said that we never "fully arrive" at knowing who God is. We strive, we learn, we lean into Him, but there will never be a time that we will ever completely know and understand Father God - because He is God! 

And that's when the thoughts of an onion came to mind. Not only do we as children of God have many layers, so does Father God Himself. But unlike our layers that deal mostly with the things that keep us from Father God (the sin, shame and ugliness), His layers are ALL good! 

Our journey in our walk with God is to know Him more and more, deeper and deeper by "peeling back" a new layer of Him. I truly believe it a gift that we start at an "outside" layer of Him because if our first "knowing" of Him was fully and wholly Him (the center of the onion if you will), then I don't believe we as mere human beings could withstand all of His goodness. Who can stand in the presence of God and live?!

But He starts us with a layer that we can handle at whatever time it is in our lives. He peels it back, we take it in, we allow it to get deep into our soul and then! Then once we have reached a point of surrender and loving Him, He will once again allow us to peel back another layer of Him, and then another layer, and another. If we went straight to the center, would we fully grasp the depth and breadth of who Father God, Jesus and Holy Spirit really are? And just like when you are peeling an onion, there could be lots of tears. Tears of joy and tears of sorrow. But each layer that we get to peel back of Father God, is getting us a little bit closer to knowing Him better and better.