The Image of the Invisible God

Does all mean all?

My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" (Psalm 42)

Where is god? 

Is god here? 

“The Lord your God is in your midst,”  Zephaniah 3:17

 In heaven?

“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face.” Revelation 22

 On Earth?

“She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')." (Isaiah 7)

 In you and me? 

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? “ (I Cor 3:16)

Is god in life?

 “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11)

In love?  

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4)

In light?

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light” (1John 1:5)

Is there anywhere god is not?  

“…one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. “ (Ephesians 4)

If god is in all, and through all, is there anything that is separate from god?  Does “all” really mean “all”.   Or is there something he is not in? 

Is there anywhere god is not?  

“in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

So it’s darkness!! That’s where God is “not”

Right?

Is god in darkness? 

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?.....If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. “ (Psalm 139)

Is god in death…. and in suffering? 

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23)

is god in hell?

“If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139)

If god is in all and through all, how can we separate where god is and isn’t?  

Does all mean all? 

Is there a place or a situation that god is not in and through and present ?

Jesus himself said in Luke 17:   “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Jesus knew there was a danger in trying to decide where god is and where he is not.  He spent a lot of time hanging out in places and with people where it was commonly thought god was “not”.

But we like trying to figure out just where god is. We want to capture god and place god in places that make sense to us and help us feel that there is order to things. The danger we are cautioned against in the first story in Genesis.  Eve wanted this knowledge. 

The knowledge of what is good and what is evil. 

Where god is and where god isn’t

Maybe the word “god” here is an obstacle to the concept. 

What if we changed it and said “the knowledge of what is sacred and what is profane” 

or

“the knowledge of what is divine and what is not”

You fill in the words that work for you.   The concept is the same. 

Perhaps  a radical embrace of god being in all and through all would help us to rid ourselves of much of our dualistic thinking.  Perhaps when we can embrace that god, or the sacred, or the divine or “good” is in all and through all, maybe then and only then we can truly embrace suffering, love our enemy, love our neighbor, love ourselves, take care of our planet.  

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God Our Mother

“This is my body, take and eat.”

God Our Mother
A Poem by Allison Woodard

To be a Mother is to suffer;
To travail in the dark,
stretched and torn,
exposed in half-naked humiliation,
subjected to indignities
for the sake of new life.

To be a Mother is to say,
“This is my body, broken for you,”
And, in the next instant, in response to the created’s primal hunger,
“This is my body, take and eat.”

To be a Mother is to self-empty,
To neither slumber nor sleep,
so attuned You are to cries in the night—
Offering the comfort of Yourself,
and assurances of “I’m here.”

To be a Mother is to weep
over the fighting and exclusions and wounds
your children inflict on one another;
To long for reconciliation and brotherly love
and—when all is said and done—
To gather all parties, the offender and the offended,
into the folds of your embrace
and to whisper in their ears
that they are Beloved.

To be a mother is to be vulnerable—
To be misunderstood,
Railed against,
Blamed
For the heartaches of the bewildered children
who don’t know where else to cast
the angst they feel
over their own existence
in this perplexing universe

To be a mother is to hoist onto your hips those on whom your image is imprinted,
bearing the burden of their weight,
rejoicing in their returned affection,
delighting in their wonder,
bleeding in the presence of their pain.

To be a mother is to be accused of sentimentality one moment,
And injustice the next.
To be the Receiver of endless demands,
Absorber of perpetual complaints,
Reckoner of bottomless needs.

To be a mother is to be an artist;
A keeper of memories past,
Weaver of stories untold,
Visionary of lives looming ahead.

To be a mother is to be the first voice listened to,
And the first disregarded;
To be a Mender of broken creations,
And Comforter of the distraught children
whose hands wrought them.

To be a mother is to be a Touchstone
and the Source,
Bestower of names,
Influencer of identities;
Life giver,
Life shaper,
Empath,
Healer,
and
Original Love.