Papa's Womb-like Compassion

We finally began our series on The Shack. Last Sunday we delved into what many people find offensive about this book--it's portrayal of God. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. God reveals himself to Mack, the main character, as an African American woman who loves to cook and is fond of everyone she speaks of.

Though many people have been offended by this picture, it never really troubled me. In scripture we discover maternal images of God. Read Isaiah 49.15-16 as well as Isaiah 66.13. Also, the Hebrew word for compassion used frequently in the Old Testament is the same root word for womb. Psalm 103.13 states "As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him." The word compassion used in this verse is derived from the word womb. In other words, Papa has a womb-like compassion for his children. This is a powerful image trying to communicate the fierce and loyal love of the Lord!

Am I advocating that we call God mother? No, I'm not. Scripture never does. However, what we have to recognize is that all of our language about God is metaphorical. Our words and pictures never contain God, they only point to God. So envisioning that God loves us like a mother loves the offspring of her womb is a good way to understand God's embrace.

And that's really the point I was trying to make. God does love us. He is good to us. We must let that love descend to the very core of our being.

Peace.

Multiplying Our Sorrows

Last Sunday we talked a little bit about idolatry. Jeremiah, speaking to a fallen nation, highlights their self-inflicted wounds one more time (30.12-15). They have failed to keep the main thing the main thing, turning away from God and pursuing other lovers. This failure to make God their highest good in life created more problems not less.

So it is for us: when we increase our gods, we multiply our sorrows (Ps. 16.4). By taking a gift of God and elevating it to a god--depending upon it to save, to give us peace, security and abiding love--we make our lives incredibly complex. We wound ourselves.

For example, if you have to be in romantic relationship, you will create havoc in your life. You will sacrifice your morals and you will get involved in unhealthy relationships simply because you have to have a romantic relationship. This says more about you than anything else. It says, you don't have a core from which to live. You don't really have a self. There's no stability in your life. Since God is not the highest good in your life, you've take a gift from God and turned into an idol. This creates a huge problem is: you will always be disappointed. Romantic love will never bring rest to your soul.

The same thing can happen with children. If your children have to be successful and superior in order for you to be happy, then you will push your children in ways that will probably drive them away. You will try to create them into your own image rather than celebrate the image of God already made manifest in their lives. Yes, children, though a gift from God, can become an idol. We can be so wrapped up into our children--clinging to them, smothering them, demanding that others see how great they are--that we do more harm than good, to ourselves and our children. Because we don't have a core self rooted in God, we can't even help our children because we're in the water drowning with them, instead of standing on the shore and throwing out a life-preserver.

Or what about living for success. I've done that, and I did not like the results. I constantly compared myself to others. I became jealous or bitter when others succeeded. Don't get me wrong, success is a gift from God. It's good thing. If God gives it to you, rejoice, be humble and most of all, be thankful. But never turn it into a god, for it will never bring satisfaction to your soul.

The good news is that God wants to heal us. Jeremiah continues to proclaim, despite these self-inflicted wounds--that God wants to heal Israel (30.16-22). God wants to come and give us new hearts, hearts devoted to him (31.31-34). Will we let him? Or will we persist in our own idolatry and therefore in our sorrow. Peace!