WHO IS GOD?
I asked the question, “Who is God?”, from the time I could remember. I was very young and in Sunday school, and no one satisfied my curiosity as to who this great power who held us all unto Him was. Since none of my preachers and teachers had any satisfactory answers for me, I sought the answers in books and far-flung meeting places for many years after. I remember being very young and obnoxious, recovering from a tonsillectomy, and a priest visited my room. (It was a Catholic hospital, so I could have been Catholic, but I wasn’t.) Anyway, I asked him who God was. He stumbled and bumbled, then caught his breath, glared at me, and told me the secrets of God were hidden from many. I looked at him in astonishment and wonder. Hidden from view, eh? O.K., so he didn’t know much more than I did. What a crock and evasion of my question!
In the years following, I asked the same question many times of men and women in the church. No one I spoke to made much sense. I received about the same caliber of answers as the early priest. “God just is.” “We must have faith He exists.” “He is the beginning and the end.” “He is the Father of Jesus.” “He is a mystery.” So, do any of those answers satisfy anyone? Not me! It’s kind of condescending. If by luck and chance, an angel of God appeared to me, or a new prophet were to appear on earth, I’d ask the same direct question, “Who is God?” Is He really the great force who threw down lightning and thunder from the skies, sent waves of rain to flood the earth, and turned a bunch of people to salt? Hard to believe, isn’t it?
My perception of Him is childlike and always has been. I perceive Him as a loving father figure, who accepts me (with all my faults) and loves me unconditionally. He’s always ready to forgive me for my transgressions, and I’m more than willing to admit my failures and ask forgiveness of Him. (We have a simplistic relationship.) I just can’t imagine the Father I’ve come to know as being mean-spirited and vindictive. Over time, and thousands of books, I finally concluded that He is the creator of “all” the universes of time and space, and he really doesn’t have a whole lot of time to be throwing rocks and storms at His naughty children. He created us in His image, meaning we have the ability to embrace goodness and to live forever in His presence, but it is personal choice on our part. He doesn’t punish nor rescue his struggling children of time and space, nor does he turn us to salt for our many transgressions. Instead, he sends out His many legions of angels from the universes to watch over us and guide us in our daily lives. They rejoice when we make spiritual strides and even the smallest of everyday choices for the betterment of our friends, neighbors and loved ones. Despite our ignorance, this loving Father, continues to forgive our trespasses and send us angelic helpers by the millions. From time to time, he sends us “visible” spiritual leaders and prophets. And at one time, He even sent His Son to guide us toward a better understanding of the Brotherhood of Man and the Father Image of God. We haven’t done really well on the “visible” level, so if I were God, I’d choose to send the invisible angelic realm too. We’ve kind of messed up with the real live spiritual enlighteners and prophets. We tend to destroy them or misrepresent them.
So, bottom line. Who Is God? He’s all of us. All the goodness and greatness within each of us. He’s our loving Father. The very best kind of Father because he loves us unconditionally. He gives us chance after chance to accept our potential of being more than we think we are capable of being. He encourages us with angels and forgives us our sins. He is an evolutionary God, as well as a spiritual God. He is in charge of his universes, and he administers them with care and great love. He offers us the freedom of will choice. He shows us the way, and then leaves the rest up to us. Pretty good guy really! I certainly love Him a lot. Who do you think God is? I’d love to hear your opinion.