How do you think of God?

I was recently at a bible study group and someone asked the question: ' who is God for you?' or 'how do you see God?'. That question took me back to a time some years ago when a group of children (maybe they were 11 or 12 years old ) came to our monastery to learn about our life. We started to talk about how we felt called to that kind of life by God, and were going on from there except... One little girl raised her hand and said ' what is this word God, what is God?'

Internally at least, my mouth dropped! I realized that I was totally out of touch with that aspect of much of today's world. We were usually only in contact with people who, even if they didn't believe much, had some concept of what the word God might mean. My goodness. None of us knew quite how to answer that question in a way that might provide some understandable idea for these children. It was a very, very important moment for me because it opened a new door onto our world as it is for many people.

So, when we were asked this time, about who or what God is, I knew my answer was only my answer. I know that there is a catechism answer but I don't think that has much, if any real meaning these days. My answer - my answer - was right now at this time of my life, to recall what Jesus is made to say in John's gospel: 'to have seen me, is to have seen the Father' (or the beloved or whatever word you might want to use) so if I look at Jesus I see what God is like. That suits me because it gives me a picture and a way of life and a spirit of love to identify with and I need that. 

One of the other people in the group said that his image of God was something like 'the beating heart at the center of the world' - which is beautiful. Another said something about 'God is spirit, the Spirit of love in our hearts'. 

It does seem to me that God can be rather elusive and so it is hard for us to get close. That for me, is why I much appreciate the role of Jesus. He is someone I can relate to, someone who teaches me. But at the same time I have no doubt about the presence of Jesus still as Spirit - deep in our hearts, empowering us to live his life if we so choose.

I know there are as many ways of seeing God as there are people and maybe that says something amazing about God - something about availability and presence in a way that makes sense to each of us. I think the only thing that constrains that is that one's own way of knowing God cannot be evil or harmful or violent. God , real God, can only be good and loving. It is sometimes hard to comprehend that in our world of violence and innocent suffering but I think that has more to do with us and our abuse of freedom than it does with God.

So how do you see God? or do you?