Dear Friends,
When I first moved into my office at St. John’s, one of the most exciting things I got to do was to sort through the overflowing bookshelf that fills one wall. During the time the office had been mostly unused, it had been something of a drop-off point, and in addition to books, the space overflowed with a perplexing number of first aid kits, materials from programs we no longer used, and about half a dozen large crosses, among other items. But as I moved things out and tidied up, the space also revealed countless beautiful books, and more than a few asked an important question: “What Is God Like?”
Of course, anyone reading this newsletter surely recognizes that phrasing as the title of Rachel Held Evans’s children’s book, of which there are several copies in my office and around the Sunday School classrooms, but there were others, too. Marie-Helene Delval’s “Images of God for Young Children” elegantly describes God using a variety of scriptural citations and beautiful illustrations. And, the older “Because Nothing Looks Like God,” by Lawrence and Karen Kushner, (I hesitate to call a book published in 2000 old, only to remember that, if it were a person, this book could legally drink in the United States!), takes a nonsectarian approach to seeking God’s presence. Nothing looks like God, the book tells us, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t all around us if we’re willing to let God in.
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus offers us one of the more unexpected visions of God, in speaking his desire to “gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” - one of those maternal visions that is often overlooked.
Of course, those concerned with these things know that images of God as mother are not in fact uncommon. The ways God is gendered throughout the Bible are much broader than what we often hear in church or even read in many translations of the Bible. This is the risk of received tradition (and not being able to do things like read Hebrew and Greek), but we don’t have to receive that tradition quietly, especially when communicating about God to children.
Daneen Akers of “Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints” has been a major proponent of praying to Mother God with children, and in a recent series highlighting the work of Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, Akers has also helped to highlight Gafney’s work towards restoring traditional translations, such as:
With an increase in visions of God in children’s books today - I’m so excited about Teresa Kim Pecinovsky’s “Mother God” - I wonder what image of God is most compelling to you or speaks most deeply to you. Is it something from the natural world or from Scripture? From Gospel or the Psalms?
One of the first images of God that moved deep into my heart as an adult was the image of Lady Wisdom, which I often hear as the Holy Spirit, in the book of Proverbs. Reading this passage as a college student spoke to me, and while I’ve never been able to really visualize her (a story for another day), her guidance is a firm hand as I journey through my life.
God doesn’t have to be the big bearded man in the sky or the wanderer int he desert in every image. Instead, God can be everywhere and invisible, a seashell or a gust of wind. Nothing looks like God and yet we embrace God’s presence.
I’d love to see or hear about your family or community’s images of God. Draw me a picture. Write it as a poem.
Some of us have an easy time seeing God around us and others, to quote one of my favorite TV shows, find that “God goes quiet on us” a little too often. When we think more broadly about God, can we feel God more closely with us?
Amen. Amen.
Bird