The Strangeness of God

What is more strange than God? What is more strange than the one who defies all expectations, and crosses all boundaries? When God reveals himself, it is almost always in something that is provocative, strange, frightening even. When Jakob met God, it was in a mad wrestling match. When Moses met God, it was in an impossible flame that burns but doesn't consume. When the prophet Eliah met God, he first encountered an earthquake, then a storm, and then found God's presence in the soft breeze that followed. When the prophet Ezekiel met God, it was in a blazing inferno held aloft by angels who looked like rings within rings, covered with eyes. When St. Peter met God, it was in the broken and bleeding body of Jesus Christ.

The strangeness of God is challenging, it is provoking, it shatters expectations, it doesn't conform to patterns which we are used to, it is transforming and revealing and it is also true. The wisdom of God looks like foolishness for those of the world, but when challanged by that strangeness and that foolishness reveals something within us, something about who we truly are. Who are you, my God? Who am I?

The Kingdom of God is not of this world, and it shows.