The four of us were sitting in the living room, our almost daily before bedtime ritual. It’s something all of us look forward to. At about 9:30 pm each evening is the Lukey-Robertson gratitude and family prayer time. We each say what we’re thankful for, but also feel free to name things that didn’t go so well, or frustrations we are feeling. Then we end with a prayer that we’ve said together since the kids were small, “Thank you, God, for being with us today. Please be with all the people we love, all the people who need you and all the earth! Amen.”
But some nights our gratitude time sounds more like comedy than prayer. Last night we got into naming things that began with “F” – family, food, fun – but it morphed into flamingos and fluorescent – well, you had to be there – but soon we were all giggling. Then someone said, “I wonder if God is giggling with us,” and soon, in our imaginations, “The Lukey-Robertson Sitcom” was on God’s list of must-watch evening shows.
How do you imagine God? Is God “someone” who would giggle with you and cry with you? Is God a judge watching out for your mistakes or a king on a throne who makes decisions about your life without your input? Is God an energy force behind the universe or a loving friend who is as close to you as your heart beat? Is God the eagle soaring up above who sees the bigger picture of your life or is God known through individuals, such as Jesus, who speak with wisdom and compassion?
How would you describe God? Think carefully. How do you really describe God? We might tell our children that God is love and nothing but love. But then we might find ourselves believing deep down that God caused the flooding in High River or the cancer of a loved one or a tragedy we’ve faced. Listen to yourself as you speak about life and about God. What is your image of God? It matters because it shapes how we feel about our own lives – discouragement? or hope? It shapes how we speak to our children about life and faith. It shapes whether we want to be part of a church community or pray or worship following disaster in our community or in our own lives.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to explore some images and ideas of God, but to begin with, here is what I would say I believe about God:
God didn’t cause High River to flood, didn’t choose for High River to flood, and God doesn’t choose disaster or tragedy for any of us.
God is love and compassion. Pure love and compassion. God can’t be loving and be a judge who punishes us. God can’t be pure love and still reject us if we don’t believe in Jesus. God is love!
God is more than we can begin to describe or imagine. God’s love is more than we can ask for or imagine. God works in our lives in ways that are beyond anything we ask for or imagine.
God is in all, over all and is ALL! In order for us to exist, God had to limit Godself so that there would be room for us. In love, God made a place for human beings and all of creation to exist, to delight in us and to share creation with us. God gives us the freedom to learn, love, grow and make choices. But that also means that there is freedom in creation for bad things to happen. That’s the tough part. However, the good news is that God is with us, working with us to mend Creation, to restore Creation. Healing and hope flow out of God’s compassion.
God is with us; we are not alone. Through whatever we face, tragedy or triumph, dreams or disaster, joy or sorrow, God is with us – giggling with us or wiping the tears from our eyes.
These beliefs give me a place to rest! I don’t have to do it all alone. I don’t have to have all the answers. God is pure love. God has a bigger picture than I do. That’s why I love God, why I worship God, why I make time for worship, my own prayers & prayer with my family each evening because God is the one who gives me rest in the midst of joys, sorrows and disasters. Trusting God, I can giggle with my family about fluorescent flamingos (you had to be there) and know that God is giggling, too!
Home
(403) 652-3168