Believers throughout the centuries have tried to describe God, but very few have been satisfied with their descriptions. Their words turn out to be too frail to do the job.

…The best any of us has ever been able to do is to describe what the experience of God is like…when we are in the presence of God. The problem is that it is rarely the same experience twice in a row. Some days God comes as a shepherd, fending off our enemies… Other days God comes as a brooding hen who hides us in the shelter of her wings. …If we were to name all the ways God comes to us, the list would go on forever…

God is many, which is at least one of the mysteries behind the doctrine of the Trinity… The other mystery is that God is one. There cannot be a fierce God and a loving one… When we experience God in contradictory ways, that is our problem, not God’s.

…All we can do is decide whether or not to open ourselves up to a God whose freedom and imagination boggle our minds.

from Home by Another Way