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God is ‘A Mama Hug’
(A Mother’s Day reflection)
In our house, when a liturgical season came around, Advent, Lent, etc., our family would sit around the kitchen table on a Sunday evening and talk.
Norah, our oldest child. Nick, our middle child. Nina, our youngest. They now range in age from 20–16. Growing up, they did many peace marches, many rituals around the dinner table, and plenty of going to church for special events. Marta’s unique contribution was the dinner table liturgical season rituals. These rituals around the dinner table often included an open-ended question after a general explanation of the season we were in. It often included some arts and crafts.
So eight years ago or so, Marta wanted to sit everyone down around the table and see if all of these marches, all of these rituals, landed. Did they impact the kids in terms of how they viewed God?
My view of God growing up (not Marta’s) was one of an angry, distant God, just waiting to get pissed off about something and ready to send everyone to hell. We did not want our kids to have that kind of image of God.
We wanted our kids to know and experience a loving God that lured them to goodness, cheered them on, and invited them to seek a more beautiful and just world.
