Wrong ideas about God

Let’s start by considering two ideas about God that are quite widespread but wrong.

God is harsh

Some people have the idea that God is interested in human beings and pays a lot of attention to what they do but is very harsh, even cruel.  These people think that all unpleasant things which they can’t understand, such as storms, accidents or illnesses, are sent by God because he is angry or spiteful. 

God is uninterested

Some people believe that God is not interested in us at all and is much too far away to bother about what happens in this world.  They think that God takes as much interest in us as the cuckoo does in its young.  As you probably know, the cuckoo lives for the greater part of the year in North Africa but comes to England every April to spend the summer here.  She does not build a nest but lays her eggs in the nests of other birds, and leaves it to them to hatch the eggs and bring up the young cuckoos.  Then in August she flies back to Africa. 

So, just as the cuckoo doesn’t look after its young, some people think that God made the world and then left it and us to get on with it without him as best we can.

But these people are quite wrong.  If anything, God cares for us like the wild birds care for and protect the little ones in their nests.  So the Psalmist writes:

“He shall defend you under his wings,
and you shall be safe under his feathers” (NRSV, Psalm 91:4).

The Father

We know, however, that God cares for us much more than that for, as Jesus told us, God is our good Father and loves us more than the best of human fathers.  He cares for all he has made.  “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?” said Jesus, “yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight…Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (NRSV, Luke 12:6,7).

God’s love for us is much greater than that of any earthly parents.  His love is unending.  It is so great that he still goes on loving us even when we turn against him.  Parents sometimes say to their children, “If you do that, God won’t love you”.  That is not true.  Whatever we do and however we treat him, yet God still loves us.  Even if everyone hated you, God would go on loving you.

One of the ways in which God shows his love is by watching over us and looking after us.  Of course this doesn’t mean that nothing nasty will ever happen to us; but it does mean that he keeps us safe many more times than we know, and can give us courage and comfort when trouble does come.

God put us into this world and he cares for us all through our life.  We can completely trust God.  He is with us always, through good times and times of trouble.  At the end of our life, when we die, he will be there to meet us and welcome us and we will live with him for ever. 

Omnipresent Spirit

God is everywhere because God is a Spirit.  Of course you can’t see him because a spirit has no body.  Wherever we look, God is there.  The stars so far away, the grass under our feet, all these things remind us of God who made them all.  There is no place where God our Father is not, so wherever we are, he is close at hand.

St Paul writes, “… neither death, nor life,…nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God…” (NRSV, Romans 8:38,39).

SUMMARY

1. Some people wrongly believe that God is harsh and unloving or has no interest in us.

2. God is our good Father who loves us dearly, watches over us all through our life, and will be waiting to welcome us at its end.

3. God is always with us because God is a Spirit.