God is ‘A Mama Hug’

(A Mother’s Day reflection)

Easter. A long while ago.

In our house, when a liturgical season came around, Advent, Lent, etc., our family would sit around the kitchen table on a Sunday evening and talk.

Norah, our oldest child. Nick, our middle child. Nina, our youngest. They now range in age from 20–16. Growing up, they did many peace marches, many rituals around the dinner table, and plenty of going to church for special events. Marta’s unique contribution was the dinner table liturgical season rituals. These rituals around the dinner table often included an open-ended question after a general explanation of the season we were in. It often included some arts and crafts.

So eight years ago or so, Marta wanted to sit everyone down around the table and see if all of these marches, all of these rituals, landed. Did they impact the kids in terms of how they viewed God?

My view of God growing up (not Marta’s) was one of an angry, distant God, just waiting to get pissed off about something and ready to send everyone to hell. We did not want our kids to have that kind of image of God.

We wanted our kids to know and experience a loving God that lured them to goodness, cheered them on, and invited them to seek a more beautiful and just world.

How we image God impacts how we show up in the world, how we manage shame and guilt, and regret, and how we understand love and solidarity. What we worship, we become. So images are essential.

I encourage as many other images as possible for the divine — or the sacred. The more elastic and imaginal the process of finding metaphors for God, the more likely we are to have a playful and free attitude towards the divine, in which we can belong and flourish. This provides a spaciousness in our spirit and, thereby, a spaciousness and graciousness in how we show up in the world.

So, upon sitting the kids down, she asked the question: What do you imagine when we say the word “God”? What do you think we mean?

Norah said, ‘when you say the word God I hear love.’ We liked that.

Nicholas said, ‘when you say the word God i think of the earth.’ We liked that.

For years I thought that was the end of it. Marta told this story this week. She reminded me that Nina spoke up as well.

Nina said: God is A Mama Hug.

Whatever your images of the sacred, I hope they include A Mama Hug and many other playful, thoughtful, and beautiful images that remind you that you are loved beyond all imagining.