Our relationship with God is a divine-human, reciprocal love affair. As in a dance, in order for us to step forward, the other partner must step away a bit. The pullback is momentary but necessary to pull us forward. Nevertheless, it does not feel like that at the moment. It feels like our partner is abandoning us, it feels like suffering.
God creates a vacuum that He alone can fill. This is the central theme of darkness, necessary doubt, or what the mystics called “God’s withdrawing of love.” What feels like moments when God has abandoned us, are deep acts of trust and invitation to intimacy on God’s part.
God does not offer Himself to our finite beings as all complete and ready to be embraced. God is eternal discovery and eternal growth. The more we think we understand God, the more God reveals Himself as otherwise. The more we think we hold God, the further God withdraws, drawing us into the depths of Himself.
Philippians 4:12-13 “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
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