Reader Question- What is God?

What is God?   -Radical Bacon
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Oooh, we're getting deep now! Thanks for writing in, as well as for being delicious!

As it happens, today is an anniversary for me. I was ordained a year ago today! Hoping that either my recent ordination (or abuse of exclamation points) won't turn people off of my supposed authority, let's jump in and take this question on.

Do you need me to caveat that my answers will be specifically Christian, because I am specifically Christian? Probably. Okay, just as a reminder, if my answers seem Christian slanted, it is because they are. That's who I am, and what I believe?

What IS God? 

The closest the Bible comes to answering this question directly is the simple statement that God IS love. I'm guessing that won't suffice as an answer for most people though. What is a difficult question for a being that exists over and above creation, but I'll give it my best shake.

God is All-Present, All-Powerful, and All-Knowing. God existed before anything existed, through all time and space. God's name is translated as "I Am" or "I will be what I will be." God is a verb, so beyond comprehension and definition that any means of comprehending God will ultimately fall short. We can never assume we have the full picture.

This has me transition from the question of What to the question of Who. God, being personable, has personality, or at least appears to in the scripture. Relationship is important, and it seems that God has even chosen to be vulnerable to humanity, to care enough about our relationship to be vulnerable to pain and even jealousy. God loves us, truly loves us, with all that entails.

So what is God?

I believe that God is good and loving, a spirit beyond our ability to comprehend who nonetheless continues to try to allow us to comprehend as much as we can, even to the point of becoming human.

Doesn't seem to really sum it all up, does it?

But then again, if God was easily definable, God wouldn't be GOD.