If you were looking for a sign this is it.
Who or Where is God?
Several years ago I learned a German worship song, based on these verses. Here is the song, if you wanted to hear it:
Interestingly enough (at least for me), the version of the German verses state: "Where is a God like you?" I haven't been able to ascertain why the translators of the German text (starting with Martin Luther himself) decided to translate it this way, but this translation was shocking for me. It knocked me down. As incorrect as it is in its translation, it was still a provocative question.
"Where is a God like you?"
I'd like to know where God is.
Sometimes I feel abandoned by God, lost, alone, and afraid. Not knowing where to turn to.
Where was God when George Floyd was murdered? Breonna Taylor? Ahmaud Arbery? Emmett Till? Malcolm X? Martin Luther King, Jr?
Where was God when I was assaulted for being bisexual?
Where was God when I went through a divorce?
The search behind the answers to these questions brings little comfort to me. No amount of Footprints in the Sand can assuage the pain I went through.
Maybe That's Not the Point
Maybe I'm not supposed to know the answers to those questions. Maybe it's up to me to do my part through the pain. Pain happens all the time. Suffering and pain are so much a part of life. Buddhism itself is a response to that pain and suffering.
That certainly does not make it any easier at all. For some people, there is no answer to the question: Where is God? It is simpler for them to say that God is not there. It is harder to say God is there, but God does not interact because God is not omnipotent or God does not care.
I remember, however, that I am not guiltless either. There have been countless times when I missed the mark. I have made so many mistakes in my life that I am really overwhelmed that I'm still around: the mistakes I made as a parent, as a son, as a student, as an adult, as a missionary, and also as a pastor. I remember all of the things I used to believe, the choices I had made, the burden I became to others.
I feel ashamed. Maybe God does not act because I have not acted.
WHO is a God like you?
Despite my German Christian friends' Luther translation, the correct translation is "Who is a God like you?" It's almost like a play on words of the prophet's name: Micah. Micah means "Who is like [God]?"
I've made tons of mistakes. More than I can count. More than I care to dwell on. Even through all those missteps, God was there for me in my life. Some people in traditional Christian circles call these errors "sins." They had a more forbidding aspect to them: eternal damnation.
Thank God (literally), this is not the case. God does not hold our mistakes against us. He does not hold our sins against us. However, maybe in this instance it might be better to use the feminine pronoun, "she" for God. Verse 19 states that God will have "compassion" on us. The English translation of "compassion" means to "suffer with."
In Hebrew, however, this word has more to do with the love of a mother for her children and the root base of the word is actually "womb."
So God, in Her compassion, takes care of us and throws our mistakes deep into the sea. For the ancient Hebrews, the Sea was also an ancient deity (Yam), more dreadful than Poseidon, Neptune, or Ulmo (for Tolkien fans). It might also explain why the ancient Hebrews were never really a seafaring nation, despite being located on the Mediterranean. So our sins, our mistakes, the wrong we did in our life, has been cast into a place only those looking for fear and terror would venture. It's best to leave them there.
Have you messed up in life? Have you needed to start over? Have you stumbled and fallen and felt that life is over? God is compassionate. God doesn't count this against us. God does not condemn. God is love and will be there for us. We are not alone. We have each other and in that connection, God is there, too.
