God Loves to Feel

I listened to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert during one of my extended walks and heard this line: “God loves to feel things through our hands” (Gilbert, 2006, p. 187).

While I don’t agree with her religious theology, the comment made me think. Initially I thought about tactile “feelings” such as the sharp crystals of orange sherbet scraping my tongue when I lick, or the silky soft petal of a flower slipping between my fingers. I wondered whether God really liked the feel of my feet pressing the pavement as I walked or my slick skin drenched with sweat.

Next I thought about emotional “feelings” and about the day I opened the door to the police chaplain, and about how excited I was when all the little children of Kyamagemule swarmed on me. Does God love to feel both the good and the bad?

Finally I thought about how our hands (heads, and hearts) are one way God experiences the world. The indwelling of Christ is a mystery but his loving to feel things through my hands means that my relationships with other people are experienced by him. How I love others, how I serve them, how I long to be with them…these are all feelings God has through my hands. Does that change the way I respond to people? I sure hope so.

We know that he lives in us by the Spirit he gave us (1 John 3:24).