God is terribly vulnerable (Jean Vanier)

  My experience today is much more the discovery of how vulnerable God is.  You see, God is so respectful of our freedom.  If, as the Epistle of John says – that God is love, anyone who has loved in their life knows they’ve become vulnerable – where are you and the other person? Do you love me back?  So, if God is love, it means that God is terribly vulnerable.  And God doesn’t want to enter into a relationship where he’s obliging or she is obliging us to do something.  The beautiful text in the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation:  I stand at the door, and I knock.  If somebody hears me and opens the door, then I will enter.

  What touches me there is God knocking at the door, not kicking the door down but waiting. Do you, will you open?  Do you hear me?  Because we’re in a world where there’s so much going on in our heads and our hearts and anxiety and projects that we don’t hear God knocking at the door of our hearts.  So, I’d say that what touches me the deepest, maybe because I’m becoming, myself, more vulnerable, is the discovery of the vulnerability of God, who doesn’t oblige.

--Jean Vanier, The Wisdom of Tenderness

To read the complete interview with Jean Vanier on On Being, click here.

Image source: Ivan Whillock, Knock on Any Door, http://www.whillock.com/religious.html

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