On the Facets of God

God our Father, forger of worlds, mighty maker of unfathomable heights and depths, laughing for joy in Creation and crying out tov, tov!!! “It is good, it is very very good!” Forming us with His own hands, kissing the clay and breathing life into it, into us. Teaching us to create, to craft ideas, manipulate matter, showing us how but leaving us room to make our own mistakes. Telling us the Story, and letting us know before the light goes that we have nothing to fear from the dark.

God our Mother, Jehovah Jireh the many-breasted one, holding us close, nurturing us, our comfort in times of trial. Our Sophia, guiding Wisdom who brings us back to the right path. Gathering us under Her wings, shielding us, and woe unto any who would attack us there! For She is a lioness as well as a brooding dove, and has iron claws within the velvet paws. Our Mother, who gave us birth but is still in labor, who brought us into this world and will take us out of it, who knows when to hold our hands and when to slap them, who loves to hug but kicks ass when she has to. Our Mother, who loves us no matter what kind of bastards we become, who yet hopes we’ll remember the things She’s taught us.

God our Son, the Son of Man, who is become flesh and dwells among us, who needs us and learns from us, who knows hunger and cold and asks that we feed and warm Him – for our sake more than His. Our Son, Who first learns from us, then teaches us, how to be human. In the weakness of His youth we carried Him, then taught Him to walk. Now we are old, bent with the weight of age and the sin of centuries, and in our weakness He carries us, until the day comes when He can teach us to fly.

God our Spirit, our very breath, our life, our being. Holy Fire that brings light and warmth yet does not consume. God’s power to create and heal placed in our tiny hands, faltering lips, buzzing brains, and trembling hearts.

God our Lover, sometimes caressing gently, wooing softly, touching oh so carefully our most secret places; and sometimes frightening in intensity, overwhelming with passion, even indecent in hot, panting, naked desire. God who finds us by turns delightful and maddening, beautiful and terrible – and the feeling is mutual. God who is jealous, and will have no rivals, who wants and demands our faithfulness. God who loves our uniqueness, who shares the most intimate secrets with us, who laughs at that joke that only we two understand. God who sometimes wants to set us throbbing all night, rock our worlds, pour oceans of wild, furious, insane love upon us; and sometimes just wants to cuddle, to hold and be held by us, to silently cherish simple togetherness.

God the Way, the Tao, the rocky, arduous, shining path to every place worth going.

God the Truth, Emeth, that which is most deeply Real.

God the Life, Zoe, the Body, Blood, Breath that dies and yet lives again.

God our universe, our all in all, Who is male and female, light and dark, yin and yang, life and death, and greater than all of them. O Jewel, blazing glorious in multifaceted Oneness! There is more to be said about You than there are words with which to say it. Who can know you by all Your names? Your many arms juggle the worlds and stars, Your many feet go everywhere at once, Your many faces greet us everywhere and each time surprise us anew.

God my Father, my Mother, my Son, my Spirit, my Lover, my Way, my Truth, my Life, my All in All: be in my sensing and perceiving, hearing and understanding, speaking and thinking and acting, that they may be worth doing.


© John M. Munzer