God Is Love

Back in the early spring on Wednesday nights, we took a class through Renovare on Spiritual Formation. And in the very first class, the question was asked, “What is your image of God?” Because your image of God shapes not only your faith – but also your world view, and often how you live. 

For example: If our image of God is a judgmental angry God, then we are much more likely to be angry and judgmental. And if your view of God is wrathful, vengeful, or vindictive, you are much more likely to see every illness, every accident – as an act of punishment. Why is God doing this to me?

Through that class we were invited again to see God through the lens of Jesus… who forgives, who heals, who has compassion. 

The great Rabbi and scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel said that the word compassion describes the divine pathos. He wrote this: “God does not reveal himself in abstract absoluteness but in a personal and intimate relation to the world. (God) does not simply command and expect obedience; He is also moved and affected by what happens in the world… Indeed, this is the essence of God’s… nature: His willingness to be intimately involved in the history of man.”

I wonder, when you think of God, what image comes to mind?

In Isaiah, chapter 43, we read:

But now thus says the Lord,
     he who created you, O Jacob,
     he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
     I have called you by name; you are mine.

Then, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15:

But while he was still far off, his father saw (the prodigal son) and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. – Luke 15:20

And then, John tells us: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… 

– John 3:16

Let us pray: Gracious God, we thank you for your love for us, a love that is deeper and wider than we can ever imagine. Help us to accept this love and share it with a world desperately in need; in Jesus’ name. Amen.