NO IMAGE IS PERFECT

God is ... I don't know.  God is beyond description. 

Certainly any attempt to physically describe God gets silly rather fast.  Instead, we tend to speak of God in the language of emotion (love, care) or action (guide, maker).  But no image is perfect.  One image that we (those of us 'in' the church) use is God is [like] light.  It conjures up that image of guidance, warmth, comfort.  The source of light in the heavens, in all times, is the sun, the moon and the stars.  The source of light on earth (still for us, and exclusively in Biblical times) is a flame - burning wood, oil, wax, etc.  In a few weeks, we will recall the story of Pentecost, where the Flame is an image of the out pouring of God's Spirit.  In that story (as in  many other places in the Bible), Wind is also analogous with the Spirit.

No image of perfect.  How can I get excited about Wind and Flame this year as I watch the devastation in Slave Lake?  As I write this, I still do not know the fate of the St. Peter's Ecumenical Parish's property (the United Church shared ministry congregation in town), but I am sure that whether it still stands or not is of small comfort to those who have lost homes and businesses ... and to everyone, whose lives are changed forever by wind and flame.  My prayers are naturally with the Rev Leigh Sinclair, my colleague in Slave Lake and the people of St. Peter's, but they are also for all of us as we realize how temporary pasts of this life are.  What can be held onto now.

Fortunately, I've never been comfortable with a "God did this for a reason" theology.  I refuse to believe that because it makes no sense and if it did, I would choose not to serve such a God.  What I beleive is that God is with us in the joy and the struggle, whatever that may be.

I will be stubborn in my faith that "God is", even if I can't come up with a good image to describe that right now.  And maybe that's enough.  Maybe it's always been enough.  "God is" - we are not alone; thanks be to God.