Do You Love Hobert?

My youngest child, Elijah, thrilled his father that he has loved Star Wars from a very early age. None of our other children cared much for it, so this last shot turned out to please my husband greatly. When Elijah was three, he started pretending on his own that he was different Star Wars characters and would play in his room for hours of intense drama. He use to be very serious about imagining, so that if I tried to come in and watch, he would stop and tell me it wasn't real. I tried to explain that I knew that and just wanted to play with him, but he always wanted to be alone. I think he was embarrassed, but thankfully has grown out of that.

Because of not being able to watch his play, I would ask him later on who he had pretended to be that day, and he most always said Hobert. Now, I'm not an avid fan, but I do know there are no characters named “Hobert”. I could never get Elijah to describe him to me and was beginning to think it was someone he made up even though he insisted it wasn't.

One day he was so intent on his playing that he came into the living room during a seemingly intense light saber battle. I could tell Luke and Hobert were fighting, and then I heard, “Hhhoooo-berrrrt, Hhhoooo-berrrrt. Luke, I'm your father!” It was all I could do to run down the hall and shut the bedroom door before bursting out laughing. Hobert was Vader! Elijah had assumed that his name was the sound effect he was always making while breathing.

We have had so much fun calling Vader “Hobert” over the last few years that I unfortunately just call him that now. It was particularly funny when he excitedly told everyone for his 5th and 6th birthday's that he was having a Hobert cake and even got a Hobert suit one time! He knows now that his real name is Darth Vader, but it's become a family name.

This started me thinking the other day about how we view God. Do we know few things about God and call Him only by those names, or have we learned about as much of who He is as humanly possible. Elijah only knew Vader by the sound he made and that he was a bad guy. In reality (Or as as close as you can get considering it is just a story), he is a good little boy named Anakin who grows up with too much bad influence and pride in his life. He then becomes Darth Vader, who actually does come around to the right side at the very end.

Please understand, I am not saying God is like Darth Vader: Nothing even close! My question is, do we know so little of God that we can't effectively share Him with others? Do we only understand individual natures of His? Compassion... Judge... Father... Son... Spirit... Master... Savior.... Sustainer... Creator... or any one of the many others. God can not be simplified as only one or two of these. He is ALL and so much more. I think that is why my favorite name for God is I AM. To me that covers everything.

Take some time today to think about the different attributes of God. Do you only talk and think about God? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? Or do you have a fairly well balance idea of who the God you serve is? Remember, Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, 'Let Us make...'”