Who Is God? Trusting God’s Unfathomable Nature

 Trusting God’s Unfathomable Nature

February does not begin with answers. It starts with an invitation. If January asked us who we are becoming, February turns us gently toward the deeper question underneath it all:

Who is God?

Not as an idea to master or a doctrine to perfect, but as a relationship to enter. This month holds two powerful thresholds:

Ash Wednesday arrives, pressing ashes into our skin and whispering that death is real, limits are real, and control is an illusion. And yet… Love remains. God remains. Resurrection is already at work beneath the surface.

Valentine’s Day also arrives, inviting us to notice who and what we love, how we love, and where our hearts are drawn. It asks us to consider intimacy, commitment, vulnerability, and desire. Together, these moments frame the same holy question:

Who is God… and how am I meeting God here?

When God Cannot Be Fully Understood

One of the guiding lines for this month comes from a reflection titled Trusting God’s Unfathomable Nature from a Bible Study my daughter shared with me:

When we attempt to fully understand God, we close ourselves off from the expansiveness of God’s plans. Where we see boundaries and borders, God intends open doors and invitation. Where we perceive lack, God reflects God’s bounty.

There is something deeply freeing about admitting this: Our understanding cannot contain God.

The Psalms are honest about this tension. They do not pretend that faith is neat or predictable. They give voice to longing, confusion, anger, grief, and trust all in the same breath. God is known… and God remains mysterious. And perhaps this is not a problem to solve, but a relationship to live.

From Head Knowledge to Lived Experience

Many of us begin our spiritual lives trying to understand God with our minds. We analyze Scripture. We seek clarity. We look for certainty. That is not wrong. It is often where love begins, but God does not remain safely in the intellect.

When I first began spiritual direction, my prayer was straightforward and very head-oriented. Each night, I would pause for a few minutes and ask, "Where did I see God today?" I noticed patterns. I named moments. I reflected logically. Then something changed.

Over time, this practice became less about identifying God and more about recognizing God’s presence. The Holy Spirit began to feel less like an idea and more like a companion. I started inviting the God I was coming to know into places I had previously kept guarded… wounded places… painful memories… spaces I had assumed God avoided. Instead, I discovered that God was already there.

This is how faith shifts from the head to the heart. From concept to relationship. From knowing about God to knowing God.

Ashes, Death, and the God Who Overcomes

Ash Wednesday confronts us with what we would rather avoid. We are finite. We are fragile. We will return to dust. But the ashes do not speak the final word. They invite us to die to old images of God that no longer give life. To release the versions of God shaped by fear, performance, or control. To let those understandings fall away so something truer can rise. This is not loss for the sake of loss. This is transformation. The God we meet in the ashes is not repelled by death or limitation. God enters it. God works within it. God brings life from it.

So, Who Is God, Really?

This month, we will not rush to define God. Instead, we will notice:

• How God meets us in love

• How God invites freedom rather than fear

• How God draws us beyond scarcity into trust

• How God’s love is broader than our categories

  
  

The God revealed here is not restrictive, but expansive. Not withholding, but generous. Not distant, but intimately near. Always, God is inviting us into a deeper, freer way of loving… ourselves, others, and the world entrusted to us. For now, rest here. You do not need to understand God fully. You are already known fully.

JOURNALING & PRAYER INVITATION

(Head to Heart)

Begin with the mind… then allow the heart to answer.

1. Head: When you think of God right now, what words or images come immediately to mind?

2. Heart: Where have you experienced God’s presence recently… even subtly?

3. Ashes: Are there old understandings of God you sense are being invited to release this season?

4. Love: How does God’s love show itself differently than you expect?

   
   

Close by placing your hand on your heart and simply breathing. No words required. Presence is enough.

From the garden within me to the garden within you where God awaits us both,

Kimi