FINDING GOD IN…ELECTRICITY
One evening, early in our dating life, I admitted to my husband that I had absolutely no idea how electricity works. I had done experiments with wires and potatoes in elementary school, but I had not one piece of information in my brain left about why, when I flip the switch, the light turns on.
Knowing me, my need to see the bigger picture, and my visual learning style, he got out a piece of paper and started from the very beginning – from electrons(!) and finished with the light switch in my apartment.
We hear the phrase a lot, “God meets us where we are.” And after looking at today’s First Reading, we might not want to think that’s true. The Israelites complained about hunger and God gave them snakes?! Yikes.
It’s good for me to remember, though, that God is speaking to a particular group of people in a particular time in a particular way that made sense to them. Just as Jesus does with the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. A seemingly confusing Gospel (for us), that is perfect for those listening. “Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.”
Saying that “God meets us where we are” isn’t a cop-out response that says God only says what we want to hear. To me, these readings challenge me to listen to how God speaks to me in my language today, however comforting or challenging.
Today, it’s through my husband reminding me that I can be less afraid of talking to people I don’t know very well after church. It’s through my physical body, still recovering from the flu, that God’s speaking to me about patience and care. It’s through my dog, napping in the sliver of sun still left on the floor, that God is speaking to me in joy. For me today, God is like my husband who explained electricity to me in a way I could comprehend.
Lord, help me to see how you meet me where I am today, without making things more complicated than they need to be. Amen.
Teresa Nygard