The God Christianity never told you about

In the book, "Letters from a Skeptic" Greg Boyd's father wonders at one point why he had never heard of the God that Greg was describing to him. The God described is a personal, caring being that enters into suffering with humanity. He is described as "one who knows firsthand what it's like to be a Jewish child buried alive, and knows what it's like to be a Jewish mother watching her child be buried!"

And it made me wonder, why hadn't I heard about this God from Christians? Throughout my life, growing up in the Lutheran church, I never quite heard that story. I never heard about that God. I heard all about the God of Israel, who protected his people from the Cannanites. I heard all about the God that enables David to slay Goliath. I heard all about the God that gave Solomon wisdom. I heard all about the God that healed the lepers. I heard all about the God who would judge humanity at the end of the world and separate the sheep and the goats.

What I never heard was the God who was distraught over David's sin. I never heard about the God who wept and mourned over his beloved who strayed from him. I never heard about the God who took on human suffering and died the most humiliating and painful death the Roman empire could inflict on a person.

After going to a Baptist church in high school, I started to hear about that God. But it was always softened. It's uncomfortable to really describe the way God feels about Israel. We don't want you to know about the language used to talk about them. That would be inappropriate. We aren't told just how much it hurts God to see people go astray. We aren't told what really happened on the Cross. We aren't told that what really killed Jesus wasn't a cross, or a beating. No one ever tells us he died of grief and despair.

Christianity has been too scared for years to tell us the truth behind our God. But people haven't been too scared to show who that God is. For years, people have been willing to demonstrate who God is to the world. Mother Teresa gave herself to the world, loving it with abandon. Throughout the centuries, people have been too afraid to tell us, but bravely showing us who God is.

Maybe Christianity hasn't been telling us about this God, because it doesn't know how. Maybe it hasn't been telling us, because that God can only be shown.