JR. Forasteros - May 11, 2014
God as Mother
Women in our culture have a confidence problem - most women undervalue themselves (while most men tend to overestimate themselves). Women can find their confidence in the fact that they bear the image of God. While we usually think of God as Father, God often refers to Godself as a Mother in the Scriptures, too. What does it mean that God is both Father and Mother to us? How is the truth that God is both male and female good news to both men and women?
From Series: "Hello My Name Is..."
Who is God? The answers to this most basic human question can be found in the Scriptures. Over and over, God comes to humanity, interacts with us in ways we can understand, and we learn more of who God is. Often in these interactions, the people who met God would give God a name - a way to describe how God had worked in their lives. As we explore these stories, we'll learn that God is the same God for us today. God is our provider, our shepherd, our banner, our peace, our mother and more!
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Of all the monsters we’re looking at in this series, the Werewolf is the most ambivalent. Culturally, we like werewolves, we’re interested in them, but we don’t want to get TOO interested. They’re not as sexy as vampires. Ghosts are scary. Zombies are cool. But Werewolves? It’s almost as if we don’t quite know what to do with them.
Well, that’s not quite true. It’s that werewolves are just… more… dangerous. There’s an edge to them that other monsters don’t quite have.
Werewolves are humans who occasionally transform into wolves or wolf-like monsters. The wolf is terrifying, unpredictable and uncontrollable. Once the person transforms, once the monster comes out, there’s no telling who or what is going to be hurt. Usually the transformation is brought on by the full moon, though some more modern incarnations like the Twilight wolves and the Incredible Hulk are triggered by anger.
The Werewolf is a person who has this monster, a beast, a Wolf living inside them.
They know it’s dangerous. And most of the time, they’ve got it under control. They have ordered their lives in such a way that the Wolf can’t get out. They’ve built a cage for the monster with structure, with rules and discipline.
But inevitably, in every story, the Wolf breaks out. The monster hurts people around them, destroys their lives. So afterwards, the person tries to put things back together, apologizes for the damage the monster has done and starts rebuilding the cage, hoping to make it strong enough next time. They make new rules. Stricter schedules.
