Ok, a few posts back I said I'd explain why I referred to God as She.
I started thinking of God as a woman, probably about thirteen years ago, when I heard this for the first time:
The 23rd Psalm - Bobby McFerrin
from his album "Medicine Man"
The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need.
She makes me lie down in green meadows,
Beside the still waters she will lead.
She restores my soul, she rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things and fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk through a dark and dreary land
There is nothing that can shake me.
She has said she won't forsake me. I'm in her hand.
She sets a table before me in the presence of my foes.
She anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.
Surely, goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in her house forever and ever.
Glory be to our Mother and Daughter and to the Holy of Holies.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
The first time I heard this, it took my breath away. I had this vision of the House of the Lord as a place full of sunshine, with the smell of cookies baking in the oven. I think it was the first time I really felt like "God of Love" made sense.
Thinking of God as a man never worked for me. God the Father didn't make me feel secure in God's love, because I was never secure in my own father's love. My dad was a troubled guy who judged himself and everyone else so harshly that expressing love was almost impossible for him. He was angry all the time and I rarely felt like I measured up to what he expected or matched up to what he wanted in a child. So I found that praying to God the Father was difficult. No, pointless.
This isn't to say that my relationship with my mother was rosy and wonderful, but at least I never doubted that she loved me. Maybe too much, but she loved me and nurtured me when she was able.
So anyway, ever since then I have felt that my understanding of God was more complete and less dissonant when I imagined God as female. I wouldn't feel comfortable in a faith setting where God was thought of solely as a man.
