A Very Open Letter
to the God of the Whirlwind:

Eric Massanari

Your whirlwind appearance to Job
reminds me of a song I have heard many of your worshipers sing:
"Our God is an Awesome God!"
I have never liked that song much.
Whenever I have heard it sung I've had this feeling that
it conjures up images of a General ‘Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf sort of god
more than anything else.
Maybe that’s why I have been uncomfortable with your whirlwind appearance to Job.
You have struck me here as a ‘Superpower God’
or a ‘Trans-national-corporation-buck-stops-here’ kind of god,
who doesn’t care much for the smaller things
such as the suffering of one.

But, this time I read more carefully, and found something else.
In your words there is a reminder that you are not just
found among the distant stars, or in the inaccessible depths of the sea,
you are there when the mountain goat gives birth
you are there in the freedom of the wild donkey,
you are in the rising of the dawn just as you are in the numbered hairs of the horse's mane.
The picture you paint of creation for Job is not
the world of Genesis where all falls under human dominion,
it is not the prophet Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom with pacifist lions and wolves,
it is a world of mysteries and subtleties beyond our grasp.

There is some comfort in that.
We are reminded that although our experiences, our wisdom, and our love
may lead us toward you, these things can never fully capture what you are.
Your words to Job may be an invitation to be healed of our human pride and arrogance.

But I will admit that it is still difficult to understand the comfort of these
words for someone who has suffered as Job suffered.
I cannot find here what Job seems to have found.
So I am thankful that you have come into the space between you and humanity
as more than a whirlwind, a burning bush, or a voice from the heavens --
you have come as Christ.

In Christ you do not appear to just one, but many.
In Christ the suffering of the forgotten ones is not ignored or kept in darkness,
in fact, it is here that the light shines most brightly.
In Christ we are given a glimpse of your understanding of
peace, justice, love, and wisdom that so often exceeds our own.

In Job I am reminded that we cannot know why suffering and evil exist.
In Christ I am reminded that You are not deaf to the echoing cries of Job in this world.

God of the Whirlwind,
I pray that somehow your mystery and your mercy
will continue to work their way into the recesses and cracks of human suffering,
that your love will flow through and fill cavernous grief and struggles,
and that you will make of these places, holy places.
I pray that you will work in us the transformation and healing found by your servant Job.

Sincerely yours,
A seeker in faith

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