This Christian Life

What is God Like?

A question that keeps popping into my head for several months now is one that baffles me a little bit. I am presented with many situations that lead to the same question, but don’t necessarily shed any light on the answer. I guess you could say I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

Question, is God more like a militaristic commander, or a mother hen? Is he demanding of our strict obedience, or graceful in every moment?

One could say he is both, and that just adds to the mystery that is God. But I still ask, when is he one way and when is he the other? In what situation does he punish us for not obeying him and when does he allow us to find freedom in our wishes?

I have learned that our “Greek” or “Western” way of understanding things requires that we think of things definitively and not comprehensively. We prefer and even demand black and white answers for everything. However, the “Eastern” approach might be much more elliptical. They understand God, for instance, to be like a shepherd, a father, a mother, a lamb, a lion, and a rock all at the same time. None of the pictures describes God completely, but all of them describe a piece of who God is.

Sometimes God is like a traffic cop to me. I drive the speed limit when I know he is watching. Sometimes God is like a mother to me. He holds and comforts me when I am down or confused. And sometimes, God allows me to do something that isn’t the right thing to do only to teach me a lesson further down the road. All the same, I still desire to know his true will so that I can adjust my will accordingly.

How do you describe God?