God As Father, Mother, Brother, and Friend

Today I offer a prayer I wrote a few years ago that lifts up different aspects of God's love for us.

Loving God, we give you thanks for your infinite love that comes to us in so many different ways that we can barely comprehend its variety.

You love us like a compassionate father with strength and authority. As a father guides his children, you guide us on our life journeys. You rejoice at our successes and support us through disappointments and failures. As loving father, you wait for us to return home when we stray and, when we return, you welcome us with a loving embrace.

You also love us like a gentle mother. Like a mother, you gave birth to the universe and created us. As a mother comforts her children, you are console us in difficult times, not taking away our pain but easing it by sharing it. With a mother's love you touch our deepest wounds with your healing touch.

In Jesus Christ, you have loved us like a brother. He came among us filled with your loving spirit. As our brother, Jesus shared fully in our lives, experiencing the heights and depths of being human. On the cross, he experienced death and made possible new life for us.

Through your Spirit, you love us like a friend, always near and always ready to help. As our divine friend, you give us strength and courage in the dark times of life. As a friend, you share in our sorrows and joys.

Help us to be obedient children, loving brothers and sisters, and faithful friends to you. Amen.

Where Is God in the Earthquake?

The horrendous and tragic earthquake in Haiti demonstrates the awesome and destructive power of nature. Not for a second do I believe that God deserves any blame for this natural disaster or any other disaster.

When the earthquake hit Haiti two days ago wreaking its havoc, God's heart was the first of our hearts to break. Where is God in this earthquake? God is with those who are suffering from it. What is God doing? God is working through the thousands of persons who are working to alleviate the suffering by sending aid or by being there as a relief worker.

Yes, God is the creator of all that is, including the forces that lead to earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes. But God's intention for creation is not for destruction and death, but for thriving and life.

Here's how I understand these events of "natural evil." The same conditions and forces that lead to earthquakes and other disasters are necessary for life to exist at all. All the forces that enhance life-- rain, wind, geologic forces, water-- have the possibility of coming together in random and destructive ways. God did not create the destruction, but created these natural forces to sustain life.

It was out of chaos that God brought order and life. God is still creating order out of chaos. As co-creators with God we have a responsibility to do our part in helping rebuild and heal when disaster strikes. For God has created humans with gifts of compassion, skill and resources. It's a critical time to put these gifts to good use.