May 26, 2023
… things we think of as being human — the need for love and connection, the ability to be intimate, the need to express and to create, the love of beauty and order, the drive to form families and friendships, to sustain an harmonic, morally coherent civilization — perhaps are qualities that do not separate us as humans from what has been presented as a cold, un-needing, abstract God; perhaps, rather, these are qualities that we get from God, the way a child gets blue or brown eyes, or a downturned smile, or certain way of waiting a beat at the end of a joke — from his or her parents.
Perhaps we get these needs, drives and qualities not as human flaws or as failings or irrelevant urges, but rather as parts of a proud inheritance, from a God who is literally a parent who is like us, who made us — perhaps emotionally, creatively, expressively, relatedly, as well as physically — to resemble (domeh) Him.
If we understand this, I do think we see ourselves with more compassion.
I think we see God Himself with more trust and intimacy and confidence, and with less fear, perhaps, and with less incomprehension.
I think if we see how we resemble God — as members of His intimate, immediate family — we can’t despair — and ultimately, it would seem, we cannot fail.