God’s enormous walk-in closet
When you call on God, who or what picks up?
What was God wearing last time you noticed?
What form does God take?
Who or what is on the other end of the line when you call on God in prayer?
These questions come up as I accompany people on their spiritual journey. Usually, we begin with unpacking their image of God. Your image of God today may be the same one you’ve had since you were a child, the one that your parents taught you. Or your image may have changed as you grew older and began having your own lived experiences that differed from your familial or religious upbringing.
Some insist that the only proper way to address the Godhead is as “father, son, and a (male) holy spirit.” Gendered images of God no longer resonate with me. I prefer to use names that do not conjure up a white bearded old man in the sky.
I think of God now as the energy that enlivens all creation. I use a variety of ways to open my prayers to the ground on which we live and move and have our being. Because that is too many words, I’ll use the term ‘God’ here - it’s short and easy to spell. Please feel free to replace it with the name you prefer - like Spirit, Universe, Source, Mystery, Beloved.
As your image of God changes, you may feel the need to change how you pray or who you are imagining is listening to you when you pray. If you’re not sure what word to use, just ask God how God wants to be addressed!
Before we continue, a bit of humility is called for here. Whatever you call God, whatever image you use to imagine God, is more unlike God than the reality of God which of course is unknown and unknowable to us in the here and now.
Any image, any word, any label, is nothing more than a finger pointing to the moon. And while it is indeed helpful to have others pointing the way, the Divine Mystery can not be contained to a box, even a church-shaped box, created by humans.
Ultimately, we each need to find our own way of connecting with Divine Mystery. A way that resonates with our own souls.
The question is how can we understand this vast formless Mystery that accompanies us on our journey?
We are embodied beings. As such, our souls inhabit a body that sees, smells, tastes, hears, and touches. We interact and understand the world through our senses. For most of us interact and understand Divine Mystery through our senses as well.
Sometimes I say that God is all in your imagination! I like to see how people react to that heretical-sounding statement. But it is true! Our imagination is a portal to our understanding the formless Divine Mystery.
The Hindus have a saying “You are formless, O God, and your only form is our knowledge of you.” What we are capable of understanding, what we know of, or can imagine God, creates our image of God.
Because we are human, we have found it helpful to personify God. It can be hard to connect with the formless source of all that is when we a limited to experiencing this world through the form of our bodies. It is easier for us to ‘know’ God with some skin on.
There are 1000 names for the Divine Mystery in the Hindu religion, each one describing a particular divine attribute or quality. You could use a different name for God in every situation and in every season. I don’t think that God cares what name you use as long as you actually do call on God.
Which brings me to the enormous walk-in closet and my opening question: What was God wearing last time you noticed God showing up in your life?
Photo by chuttersnap-sfwWuBL2dj0-unsplash
God’s walk-in closet
In order for you to be able to understand how God is communicating with you, the formless God needs a gigantic walk-in closet full of every kind of clothing - outfits from every culture, for every season, that would fit every size. God will take on the form of humanity or animals or nature to get the message through to you!
God may show up as your neighbor bringing over some fresh baked muffins when you are feeling a little lonely.
God may show up as a school mom who you bump into at the grocery store (where you’ve never seen her before or since) to share with you important info on getting your kid registered for school on time.
God could even show up as a red cardinal after a loved one has passed to let you know that they are at peace.
God wants to get your attention, so God will show up in whatever way you will be able to understand. Just so you can see how much you are loved, God empties Godself of any form of divinity and takes on a form that you can understand. Philippians 2:6-7
TL:DR
I leave you three suggestions:
Ask God directly what form of address you should use in your prayers. And then start writing down the possibilities that come into your imagination. Choose whichever one has the most resonance for you!
Every time you notice God showing up in your life, write it down in vivid detail. These are consoling moments, the receipts if you will, that God cares enough to become real to you. The more you write these moments down and savor them, the better you will be at spotting them. And knowing that God has shown up in the past will help you get through the dry periods when you have trouble connecting with God.
When you are ready to go deeper, let’s talk. You can hop on a free 30-minute call with me to talk about your spiritual journey and whether you would benefit from having me walk alongside you. Click here to check my schedule!
Which outfit did God use last time you noticed God showing up in your life?
Everyone will have an answer that is unique to them!
I’d love to hear yours!