The hand of God...

In blogging I sometimes speak of "the hand of God" present during certain chapters of life. Recently I heard someone dismiss this concept as "superstitious" thinking.

Surely it all comes down to how we understand "God". If we believe in a higher power, is it arrogant to think we can attempt to define it? (Can the created define the creator?) Yet hasn't each civilization attempted to do so? Raised Catholic, it's easiest for me to use Christian terminology in describing matters of faith. But maybe terminology doesn't matter, that God transcends language, time, place and religious verbiage.

When I was very little I talked to God. It was as if I was born knowing Him. I wasn't afraid, and it didn't feel the least big strange. I thought everyone shared this kind of familiarity, but I learned otherwise as I grew older. As my grasp of the world grew, as I gained more life experience, so did my understanding of the divine grow. I studied other religions and fine tuned my beliefs.

I've developed a very loving, gentle, forgiving concept of the divine power. He (or "She" if you prefer) is so much more to me than "creator". I feel like little girl, reaching for the hand of Someone much stronger, wiser, bigger than I am. It's a matter of trusting in that Someone, as I toddle along through life, to help me choose wisely and become the best I can be. That hand might let go now and then when I test my own strength, but it is always there to guide me. After all, spiritually I am a child, so much growing still to be done, so much maturing left to do. Steve calls me a "feral child"... and he's right that there is a wild, reckless, irreverent (artistic?) part of me. Like a child I can be very self-centered and frightened. It's reassuring to know there is a Love that is perfect, there for me always, and to know I am never alone. It sounds simplistic, but one verse sums it up best... "God is Love."

It saddens me to think there are darker views of "the hand of God ". And I've known many people, some Christians infact, who see a God as a punishing scorekeeper, one who bargains with the devil to test us, as in Job.

To me it's a conflict to imagine an indifferent God sitting before a chess board, furrowing his brow and recklessly sacrificing some of us as pawns, in a game of sport for purposes of divine amusement. We are each too precious to be pawns.
And I can't fathom seeing God as a puppeteer, directing every move, leaving us at the mercy of a mastermind's whims. We have freedom to go where we wish, do as we wish think what we wish.

So when I write about "the hand of God" I am referring to a powerful benevolence, a strength, a light and clarity that surpasses all others, a God who wants the very best for me and for all of us and remains involved in our ongoing creation.