The Seeker, Mike Moyer, Art in the Christian Tradition
Some of you may have noticed that since I have been at Bethany I have begun the Lord’s Prayer by saying “Our Mother, Our Father …”. At my previous pastoral charge, we said, “Our Creator” … which I had inherited from my predecessor.
At the back of Voices United, there are several versions of the Lord’s Prayer. There are also a number of translations, including French, Japanese, Taiwanese, Cree, Korean and Chinese, and one paraphrase from New Zealand which begins: “Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be … Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven:”
I believe that it is important to use different images of God in our prayers, especially for children as their understandings of God are forming. In Genesis 1, it says that humankind was created in God’s image. To me, that means all humankind, not just males.
It’s true that Jesus described God as a father. Actually, the translation of the word he used is more accurately translated as the more intimate word “daddy”. But I don’t think that he meant that we were to only use that one image, that one concept forever and always. Jesus was trying to make an overwhelming concept a bit more understandable. If we only use one image, we may get stuck. And for some, the image of a father might not be particularly comforting, or relatable.
In fact, the bible is rich with different images of God, of people describing a mystery which is in the end, indescribable. Each image tells us something about how the writer understood the nature of God.
In Psalm 23, God is compared to a shepherd. Jesus compares God to a woman searching for a lost coin in Luke 15:8-10. (image pictured above). In the book of Hosea, chapter 13:7-8, God is compared to a lion, a leopard, and a protective mother bear.
In Deuteronomy 32:11-12, God is compared to an eagle protecting its young, teaching them and guiding them. In Genesis 1:2, God is the wind that swept over the face of the waters. And in Jeremiah 18:6, God is a potter and Israel is clay in the potter’s hand.
The bible also describes God in more abstract terms, such as:
In Proverbs 1:20, wisdom cries out in the street. 1 John 4:11 says God is love.
And we hear in Psalm 27:1 that God is my light.
All of these images help us understand the great mystery that we call God. Sometimes, we need different images at different times in our lives.
One of my favourite children’s books is by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso called In God’s Name. It begins by saying that in the beginning everyone had a name, but no one knew the name for God. So each person searched for a name for God. The farmer called God Source of Life. The soldier called God Maker of Peace. The artist called God My Rock. The woman who cared for the sick called God Healer. You get the picture. When they look in God’s mirror, they see everyone reflected, and realize that all the names for God are good, and one name is not better than the other.
How do you describe God