My God Is So Big
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries
Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks… -Proverbs 1:20-21
The best part of every day is singing my daughter to sleep. Growing up in Community of Christ, I am blessed with a rich and deep repertoire to draw from-campfire songs, hymns, Taize chants.
Some of the songs I sang with gusto in my youth I have let go because of images of God or theological implications I can no longer embrace. This is why I was surprised when an old song spontaneously surfaced in my singing one night. I remembered as a child singing “My God Is So Big” and feeling the protective power of an Almighty Father God who could swoop down to save us from harm. It was a reassuring image to a young child, but also reinforced a patriarchal image of God as masculine and aloof from daily life. It sounded like a song of dominion and ownership, almost braggy, one that as I grew older became increasingly uncomfortable.
When the melody came to my lips in the sleepiness of snuggles and lullabies, I made a pronoun change and gasped in awe at how the entire meaning of the song changed with it. “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing that SHE cannot do…. the mountains are hers; the rivers are hers; the stars are her handiwork too…”
I wanted my daughter to know that she is created in the image of a God who is gender-inclusive and diverse. Suddenly “big” meant vast and unfathomable. I imagined strength not as domination, but as power to transform and create change, to summon the courage of the human heart. I imagined the divine feminine, Sophia, Wisdom, Mother embracing the whole cosmos in loving care, creativity, and interdependence-the mountains, the rivers, the stars, and a young girl and her mother humming lullabies that I pray will turn into dreams.
Each time I sang “she” for God, I felt the unraveling of toxic narratives, assumptions, and expectations. I felt the liberating possibility that my daughter might grow up hearing the width of inclusion as her norm and understand powerfully her own strength, capacity, and calling in this vision.
Prayer Phrase
“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).
Spiritual Practice
Embodying God’s Shalom
Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.
What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.
