The Man Who Loves the Cowardly Lion

I recently read something simple that impacted the way I view God. I have always struggled with God's image - I believe God is God you know what I mean? - but I often find difficulty in wraping my head around his character. I grew up learning that if you follow the rules and be a "good Christian girl" then God won't be angry at you or condemn you or strike you down with lightning. But yet God says that he is good and loving toward all he has made. So which is it? Is he good and loving? Or angry and condemning? It's taken many years but in my adulthood I've come to embrace that God loves me with without condition. Period. But let's keep it real...it's tough to reverse those negative messages you've been told your whole life. So really it's a continual journey to knowing God...like this line I read at the end of Psalm 62:

God has said, "I am strong and I am loving."

That's it. Too simple, right? Yet somehow the combination of the two words "strong and loving" struck a chord with me and this image from my childhood appeared in my head. I immediately thought of a person - someone I didn't even know that well - who embodied those two words. When I was in the 7th grade, one of my dance teachers introduced us to her then boyfriend, now husband. He was very tall, larger than life and looked strong and had very loving eyes. All of us 12 year old girls instantly loved him. He would tease us and make us laugh. He rode a motorcycle and had the ability to hurt someone if he wanted to yet he was tender and loving. He came to our dance recitals and competitions to cheer us on. He praised our dancing and told us how we cute we looked in our Wizard of Oz costumes. In my mind, he was a strong and loving man who could protect me if I was in danger and cherish me for just being me. Someone who thought I was lovely even dressed as the Cowardly Lion in hideous face makeup. That's the image of God I embraced that day...a God who thinks I'm lovely even when I act or feel unlovely.

It is not because men and women are good that God loves them, nor only good men and women that He loves. It is because He is so unutterably good that He loves all persons, good and evil...He loves the loveless, the unloving, the unlovable. (From Brenning Manning's The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus)

This is the God I want to know.

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