God is not an 'it' but a person – both he and she, and therefore whole

God is much more than an impersonal loving force or power, and so more than a positive ‘it’ or a ‘thing’, as sometimes portrayed. God is a loving force or power (and indeed the source of all love) but, for me, this means that God must also be a person. Certainly, God is not an old man with a long grey beard perched in the clouds, as it has also been portrayed. However, I do believe that God is love (1 John 4:16) which implies personhood, as we can only love someone if this love is shared with another person who is also separate to you as a person too. So, if God is love (and separate to us as persons) God can and will consciously seek a loving relationship with us as persons, and therefore will reach out to us. Moreover, I believe that we are invited to engage with God as loving persons and respond to God, others, and God’s creation, similarly – so we can live a life which is increasingly enriching and beneficial for all.

But if God is love and is a loving person (as well as a loving positive force or power), then it is essential to use pronouns to indicate that God is a who and not an it. Of course, the pronoun ‘he’ has mainly been used to depict this personhood, both in scripture and in long tradition. However, the feminine pronoun also indicates God’s personhood and yet is often disguised and even buried, despite there being clear evidence in scripture of both masculine and feminine forms being used to describe God. For example, in Hebrew and so throughout the Old Testament, God’s Spirit is referred to as female (Ruah). Moreover, this feminization of God carries through from the Old Testament to early Church members who, influenced by these Jewish interpretations of God as both masculine and feminine, often referred to the Holy Spirit as female. It is also profoundly important to recognise and meditate on how the book of Genesis states early on in Chapter 1:27 that God created humankind in ‘his’ own image, but that this image was both male and female. “So, God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created humankind, both male and female he created them.”

But, where does acknowledging this feminine side of God leave us? As a man born in the 1960s I was brought by a dad who (reflecting the image of his generation) often looked down on what might be termed feminine qualities. As a result, and like my dad, from an early age I found ways of disguising, denying, and, at times, even despising these qualities – such as those concerning the cultivation of tenderness, nurturing, emotional sensitivity, empathic connection, relational intimacy, and much more besides. In the last few weeks I have been praying intently and have been led by the feminine spirit to repent of this negative attitude to these feminine qualities – but then have experienced a growing quietness within my soul reflecting an assured sense of a new-found wholeness, resting, without shame or denial, in the bosom of God’s love.

If you want a FREE copy of my book Wrestling ‘Til Daybreak, please email me on disconnectedchristians@gmail.com and we can take it from there. This book is the second of a trilogy intended as ‘a spiritual guide for disconnected Christians and other questioning journeyers’. The first book is titled Nine Steps to Well-Being and is available via Amazon – author Steven R. Smith.