What is God's Name: Reflections on the 'Faces' of God

"In the beginning" God's Spirit hovered over the work of creation. The word "hover" connotes tender concern as a mother bending over her baby or one who stands at the bedside of a loved one who is very ill. There is no other word that can quite replace "hovering". This is the first immediate image of God that we encounter in the opening verse of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis.

Wings are wonderful! I co-piloted a small plane at 16 and have been addicted ever since, even though my mother said planes were like poison – one drop and you're dead – and she stayed on the ground. Wings give freedom and a vast view that we cannot see from the ground.

Jesus was grieved at the refusal of his people to respond to his love, saying how often he longed to gather them as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings but they would not. (Mt.23: 3-7)

Growing up on a farm, I saw daily this cozy, tender phenomenon of the hen and chickens. I loved it, hearing the tender little clucking sounds of the mother hen as one by one the chicks, with quiet tiny peeps, disappeared under her wings. There was room for them all. I could almost feel the warmth of her breast and the protection of her wings. Perhaps that is why I write of the Wings of God as an image of God's deeply caring and protective love for me, for us.

A messenger of God, the angel Gabriel, visited Mary. God had a secret to share with her. She listened. Then she was "overshadowed," not by Gabriel's wings but by the wings of God, the Holy Spirit. And the Word was made flesh – one of us, One who brought us all good.

Wings are wonderful!

By Mary Alban Bouchard CSJ
Photo by Mary Doreen Smith CSJ