A God by any other name

I've noticed this trend in prayer that has crawled underneath my skin, kind of like a chigger, and makes it's way to the surface to irritate me and make me itch.  The trend is to strictly relegate God to the role of "Father" in prayer.  What I mean is this "Father, we ask you today...Father, come into our presence...Father, we call on your name..."  I listened in worship this morning and every single person who prayed in front of church started out with "Father".

I don't mind calling God "father", though I know of many for whom that term will never fall from their lips.  What I mind is limiting God to "father".  It seems to make God one-dimensional and so very much human, whereas I see God as multi-dimensional and utterly other.  To me saying "Father" in relation to God conjures up the Sunday School image that I had of God as a giant white cloud in the sky with a face, a mustache, a long white beard and puffy white cheeks and a ready smile.  That God of my childhood was limiting, had parameters that were clearly known and would always be in the sky.  The God of my adulthood is different.

God may look like the God portrayed in "The Shack", a big black woman in an apron.  God may look like the wind.  Like the frog that sat beside me on the beach one day as I struggled to make sense of the heartache I was feeling.  God might look like the guy who sold me my Mustang Convertible.  God might look like the rocks where I sat in Tahoe last year, officially deciding to quit my job.  God might look like the lizards near the rocks that kept darting back and forth beneath my legs, making me move.  God might look the trees.  God might look like Ms. Shirley in Mississippi or my friend Cora or maybe even David, who lived in the woods.  I have no idea what God might look like but I do know that I cannot limit God to being just "Father".

God is Creator, Author, the Alpha and Omega, beautiful, scandalous, full of Grace, full of Mercy, full of Kindness but also a God of wrath and a God of love.  God is so infinitely big, so infinitely amazing I cannot fully comprehend nor explain God.  God is the giver of life, the keeper of my deepest secrets, the one who gives, the one who grieves.  God is breath.  God is hope.  God is compassionate and slow to anger.  God is the one who pushes me beyond the limits I have set for myself.  God is a cheerleader and a a rule enforcer.  God is...God not just Father but so much more.