God Likes Our Neighborhood

From the moment I found out that we were having a daughter over 4 years ago, I began to pray that she would be my little Feminist Theologian. And sometimes she says things that make me think God might just answer my prayers. Just the other night we shared one of those moments where I realized that Gracie may actually believe some of the things I say and pray a little more than I do.

Out of the blue Gracie looked at me with her deep, beautiful, inquisitive eyes and declared "God likes our neighborhood!!!"

In her mind this little profound statement was just a simple expression of reality as she understands it. This is the narrative that she experiences life through, and it it beautiful. While I say that God loves our neighbors and neighborhood there are many times I wonder how he could.

For many of us we have been told the wrong story, given a poor narrative to live by. We have been convinced that there is not enough, that we ought to judge and hate people for their mistakes/addictions/flaws, that we are right and so they must be wrong, that we belong here and they do not, that the world is out to get us, that there are a lot of bad people, that we have no responsibility to anyone but ourselves, and worst of all God loves us but not those who are different than us. We have sadly believe that God does not actually like our neighborhoods.

God does love our neighborhood, he even likes it. The people here are a delight to him, and this is the type of place I think Jesus would want to live. I think Jesus would find great joy in every single person who lives here, and I think he would always be dreaming with people of a healthier life. He would be in the work of restoration, the work that requires eyes always looking for the good and beautiful hidden in the dilapidated and broken.

Jesus was always announcing this overflowing, inclusive, generous love to people. My daughters question first made me wonder if I believed it, then caused me to wonder if the people in my neighborhood know it. To often there are people speaking judgment, intolerance, and even hatred against people in the name of Jesus. This is blasphemy, this is violence being committed against the kingdom of God. We may not like who all God has invited to the great banquet of his love, but what a horror it would be if we missed the banquet because we didn't think the guests were deserving enough. I want to announce this, to creatively encounter my neighbors and neighborhood in a way that communicates "God likes you, and he really likes our neighborhood."

Most of all I am realizing how God allows me to raise my daughter in a way that calls me into honestly living out the radical love of God. Kids have a funny way of reflecting back to you what you say in a way that catches you off guard and actually operates as a critique of your practical theology. I hope my daughter Gracie leads a revolution. I hope her love for God, for people, and for the world leads her to critique the broken systems that would make room for oppression, poverty, exclusion, and hatred. I want her to be a radical for love, not because she is trying to be a radical, but because she is so compelled by love that their is no other way for her to live. I want her to grow up in a world where people know that God likes them, and I want here to be a continual call to me to live into that vision also.