Eric Morse
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Introducing the essayBelow please find a short essay by Nita Gilger on the idea of God's protecting us. I appreciate so much of what Nita writes for Open Horizons, and that includes this essay. She is honest about faith and its ambiguities. When I read this essay, I think of a story in the Chicago times on Oct. 15, 1994. Its title was "5-year-old killed over candy."
Five-year-old Eric Morse was dangled outside a 14th-floor window and dropped to his death because he was doing the right thing: refusing to steal candy from a store, authorities said Friday....A day after Eric's death, authorities described how two neighborhood boys, ages 10 and 11, hatched a murder plot as they walked home from grammar school. They were angry because Eric had refused to steal for them, police and prosecutors said....more I have to ask: Where was God when Eric was falling from a 14-floor window? If , as Nita marvels, a mother eagle protects her eaglet while falling, why didn't the mother God protect Eric? Why didn't God swoop down and catch him? Is the mother eagle more powerful than God? Or is God really powerful, but just less loving, than the eagle? Read her story and then I'll continue:
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Does God Really Protect Us?
Trying to Understand the Practice of Trusting
By Nita Gilger
Does God really protect us? There are times I have felt that and thought so. Then there are times I question that notion. I have several amazing stories in my life that lead me to understand the mystery of God's presence and protection as real and dependable. Many good people in the world, who have deep faith, have not been protected from harm. Trauma and tragedy happen. I am not exempt nor is my family. Life events can be devastating and so hard to understand.
Last night, Psalms 91 kept running through my mind:
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
who abides in he shadow of the Almighty, I will say
to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress; my God in whom I trust.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the
deadly pestilence; and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler."
I thought of Isaiah 40:31
"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
they shall mount us with wings like eagles, they shall
run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
These scripture images took me back to the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa. I climbed them twice as a part of a group of Rotary International Exchange Students. On the mountain top where we camped, there were wild orchids, heather, and an incredible view of the Southern Cross in the sky at night. One early morning at sunrise, Heywood, our Rotary Leader, and I went to the precipice of the 10,000-foot mountain top. There we watched the eagles making large circles in the sky. They would dive and then return to their carefully placed cliff dwelling. Soon, we saw a mother eagle push one of the babies out of the cliff nest. It fluttered and struggled and was doing its best to fly. Flight lessons had begun. The eaglet had some success but began to do a nose dive at which time, the momma flew down swiftly catching her baby on her wings. She took it back to the nest and let it rest. Soon, she did the same practice over again and again until the baby began to learn the art of flying on its own. It was a fantastic sight. She always caught her baby when flight failed. The sunrise illuminated the eagles’ quest. It was majestic.
These images have influenced my theology of God's care and protection. I firmly land with the eagles. They teach me a great deal about trust. I think we live in an imperfect world where imperfect and incredibly difficult and sometimes horrible things happen. We cannot always protect those we love, ourselves, or even perfect strangers. Earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and disease happen. I do not believe God causes those things to happen, but it seems at times they are not prevented either. There is a natural order in creation and there is human interference and harm done to the environment and each other. We are not robots, nor is God. There is free will and we, as humans, can and do make choices for good and for ill. God is not a big computer in the sky controlling our every move or the will of others around us. Others’ mistakes and choices can collide with our lives. However, I do believe that God walks with us through our lives and experiences. I have experienced mystery often. I can't say I always understand mystery, but I trust Spirit to be with me in and through all things. Even death can be the ultimate healing. No more suffering and pain.
I don't have any pat answers, but I know God provides even, or maybe most especially, in hard times. I trust that God is love. I trust that even in sorrow and sadness, God is present. I trust that God can guide my path and help me have the strength, love, and peace to carry on. I admit, I am a lot like that baby eagle. I am still learning to fly. But it is exhilarating to know I can be pushed out of the nest and those parent eagle wings, which have more strength and wisdom than me, can teach me how to fly. I falter and struggle but somehow, I still nest with trust right next to me and in me.
Trust, for me, is like the lake on which we live. Sometimes the fog rolls in and I cannot see the lake clearly or at all, but what I know is that it is still there. When the sun breaks through, I know my trust was solid and correct. The lake is very much still present. It never left at all. God is and always will be.
Last night, Psalms 91 kept running through my mind:
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
who abides in he shadow of the Almighty, I will say
to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress; my God in whom I trust.
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the
deadly pestilence; and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler."
I thought of Isaiah 40:31
"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
they shall mount us with wings like eagles, they shall
run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
These scripture images took me back to the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa. I climbed them twice as a part of a group of Rotary International Exchange Students. On the mountain top where we camped, there were wild orchids, heather, and an incredible view of the Southern Cross in the sky at night. One early morning at sunrise, Heywood, our Rotary Leader, and I went to the precipice of the 10,000-foot mountain top. There we watched the eagles making large circles in the sky. They would dive and then return to their carefully placed cliff dwelling. Soon, we saw a mother eagle push one of the babies out of the cliff nest. It fluttered and struggled and was doing its best to fly. Flight lessons had begun. The eaglet had some success but began to do a nose dive at which time, the momma flew down swiftly catching her baby on her wings. She took it back to the nest and let it rest. Soon, she did the same practice over again and again until the baby began to learn the art of flying on its own. It was a fantastic sight. She always caught her baby when flight failed. The sunrise illuminated the eagles’ quest. It was majestic.
These images have influenced my theology of God's care and protection. I firmly land with the eagles. They teach me a great deal about trust. I think we live in an imperfect world where imperfect and incredibly difficult and sometimes horrible things happen. We cannot always protect those we love, ourselves, or even perfect strangers. Earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and disease happen. I do not believe God causes those things to happen, but it seems at times they are not prevented either. There is a natural order in creation and there is human interference and harm done to the environment and each other. We are not robots, nor is God. There is free will and we, as humans, can and do make choices for good and for ill. God is not a big computer in the sky controlling our every move or the will of others around us. Others’ mistakes and choices can collide with our lives. However, I do believe that God walks with us through our lives and experiences. I have experienced mystery often. I can't say I always understand mystery, but I trust Spirit to be with me in and through all things. Even death can be the ultimate healing. No more suffering and pain.
I don't have any pat answers, but I know God provides even, or maybe most especially, in hard times. I trust that God is love. I trust that even in sorrow and sadness, God is present. I trust that God can guide my path and help me have the strength, love, and peace to carry on. I admit, I am a lot like that baby eagle. I am still learning to fly. But it is exhilarating to know I can be pushed out of the nest and those parent eagle wings, which have more strength and wisdom than me, can teach me how to fly. I falter and struggle but somehow, I still nest with trust right next to me and in me.
Trust, for me, is like the lake on which we live. Sometimes the fog rolls in and I cannot see the lake clearly or at all, but what I know is that it is still there. When the sun breaks through, I know my trust was solid and correct. The lake is very much still present. It never left at all. God is and always will be.
Drakensberg mountains of South Africa
Further Reflection
Nita’s essay is wonderfully honest. She doesn’t have pat answers. She knows that there is tragedy and horror in life. She sometimes struggles to trust. And yet she has confidence that God is love and that God is and always will be. She feels guided by God and loved by God.
I’m in the same boat. I can’t speak for Nita but I will speak for myself as a process theologian. I think that God is non-coercive love and that in some ways the mother eagle is more powerful than God. God has lots of love, but no wings and claws. But with Nita I think we are protected by God, not through God’s manipulation of events in a physical way, but through God’s provision of fresh possibilities for responding to anything that happens, in this life and the next. Which takes me back to Eric. I find myself hoping that falling to the ground is not his last memory, that his journey continues after death, into a wholeness beyond our imagination. That is my hope. Something tells me it’s Nita’s hope, too.
I don't think everyone needs to think this way. I know people who believe that God could intervene and catch falling children, but chooses not to, in the interests of free will. But there is so much tragedy that befalls human beings and other living beings that has nothing to do with a human misuse of freedom: natural disasters and disease, for example. So I vote for a clawless God, but not a clueless one. I think God revealed the depth of divine power, not in pulling Jesus from the cross, but in suffering with him and bringing forth possibilities for new life in the aftermath. That man's life is our clue to God. We don't seek one-sided power, we seek a love that never gives up on us or anybody. We can have faith in a God who is always here and always will be.
-- Jay McDaniel
I’m in the same boat. I can’t speak for Nita but I will speak for myself as a process theologian. I think that God is non-coercive love and that in some ways the mother eagle is more powerful than God. God has lots of love, but no wings and claws. But with Nita I think we are protected by God, not through God’s manipulation of events in a physical way, but through God’s provision of fresh possibilities for responding to anything that happens, in this life and the next. Which takes me back to Eric. I find myself hoping that falling to the ground is not his last memory, that his journey continues after death, into a wholeness beyond our imagination. That is my hope. Something tells me it’s Nita’s hope, too.
I don't think everyone needs to think this way. I know people who believe that God could intervene and catch falling children, but chooses not to, in the interests of free will. But there is so much tragedy that befalls human beings and other living beings that has nothing to do with a human misuse of freedom: natural disasters and disease, for example. So I vote for a clawless God, but not a clueless one. I think God revealed the depth of divine power, not in pulling Jesus from the cross, but in suffering with him and bringing forth possibilities for new life in the aftermath. That man's life is our clue to God. We don't seek one-sided power, we seek a love that never gives up on us or anybody. We can have faith in a God who is always here and always will be.
-- Jay McDaniel