In the beginning, God... (Genesis 1:1)
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14)
I was once in a class of eleven year olds in Mordiford, taking any questions they could throw at me. One lad in particular was really engaging with all of this, quizzing me about God’s externality and also asking “who created God”. I gave what I hope were appropriate answers for year six, and the lad put his head in his hands and said: “aaargh”! And I told him that he’d got it! He’d realised that he could not completely understand God, and that at times some of the concepts of God only tickle the edge of our minds. I find that exciting, the boy less so. The point is that God is other.
When we speak of God the Father, we speak of someone who owes his existence to no-one. He simply is. He is the ultimate cause of all things, the first action from which all reactions flow. The life from which all life derives. The standard against which all else is measured.
These are ideas which we are not used to thinking. Often when you meet someone, you ask them: “where are you from”. God alone can answer: nowhere. He just is. In the beginning God was already there, and his name is simply “I AM WHO I AM”. He just is. We can describe him, but we cannot define him.
And I find that simply liberating. It allows me to rethink the world around God, and stop thinking it revolves around me. Deeper than all my thought, emotions and intuition is God. Who is.
Who simply is.
