God Wants A Hug
And He wants to hug you as you look at Him.
God loves you and wants to hug you. Do you believe that? I don’t know about you but I could sure use a hug from the Lord and I really believe he wants to hug us. I’ve been thinking about the image of God that is depicted as the father in Jesus parable of the Prodigal Son. In it we see a father who watches daily for his lost son. And when the son returns the first thing the father does is run to him and embrace him in a hug. This is what God is like, Jesus tells us. What is God like to you? Who has defined what God is like during your life?
I recently re-read a section from the CS Lewis classic, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s that part where Aslan comes back to life and Susie and Lucy are there to witness the risen Aslan. The first thing they do is enter joyfully into this activity with Aslan where they romp and roll on the ground. It is a great joyous occasion. I felt my eyes begin to burn and tears well up as I considered a God who desires to be so near his creatures in this playful way.
God loves us and wants to be near us. And, in fact he is. He is nearer to us than our very breath. St Augustine says he is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. Consider that for a moment. We tend to think of heaven as being this place beyond reach; “up there” somewhere. This is not the way the scriptures consider it. When St Paul speaks of the “heavenly realm” he is talking about the space around us. According to this we are swimming in the waters of heaven; our very existence takes place in the atmosphere of heaven. But it seems so far away because we live in this place so controlled by darkness and sin.
Sometimes the reality of heaven connects to earth and we can become aware of it. If we’re paying attention we can enter what some call a “thin place”.
One time I was attending a Christian concert and the presence of God was palpable. There was just something in the atmosphere that made me “feel” the touch of heaven. It was a “thin place”. At the end of that concert the artist gave a little talk and an invitation for those desiring prayer to come to the front and be prayed for by some folks who were there for this purpose. I went forward and came before a man who was wearing some strong cologne. It was pleasant, not a cheap smell at all. His prayer for me was powerful but the most powerful aspect of that prayer was the realization that God was truly ministering to me on a very personal level at that moment. After he was finished he hugged me and the smell of his cologne got on me. That smell stayed on me for quite some time that evening. Others could smell it on me too. Later I came across the following scripture;
2 Cor. 2:14-16
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ … among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
I knew that moment was an encounter with God. It was as if the Lord had hugged me that night. And when he hugs us the fragrance of his grace gets on us and can’t help but affect others around us.
God wants to hug you, so that his love can be spread around to others. In such a way you will become a thin place where others can encounter God.
Another time God hugged me; I was praying and walking around the park next to student family housing where I was attending grad school. It was a particularly difficult time in my life and I had begun the practice of daily walks in the park for the sole purpose of praying. On this day, at the end of my prayer time I decided to sit on a bench. It was early morning; there was a soft warm mist in the morning air. All of a sudden I was enveloped by a strong feeling; it was euphoric. It was so intense I thought I might pass out. I had never felt anything like it before or since. I had the awareness that Someone was next to me. I just knew in my heart that it was Jesus. There were no words only the unmistakable feeling that he was with me. This feeling lasted only moments and after it came to an end I was was literally breathless for a moment. I knew at that time that God had embraced me in order to affirm his presence and to let me know he understood what I was going through and that he was going through it with me. Something like this only needs to happen once, I go back to this moment often as I find myself in difficult situations and I am reminded that the words of Jesus are true; “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
I received another hug, this one was from Juan. For about two years my wife and I lived in Chicago in an intentional Christian community. It was there that I become more aware of the poor and people who experience homelessness everyday. It was overwhelming to encounter such terrible poverty. I wanted to help; to do something. I felt so powerless to do anything for them. One day upon meeting up with yet another person asking for some money, I inwardly prayed; Lord what can I do? Immediately the answer came back, “Just get to know their name.” This became my challenge. One of the guys whose name I got to know was Juan. Juan always asked for a dollar to buy a cup of coffee from McDonalds. I would take him into the restaurant and get him a coffee when I could. I couldn’t always do this for him, and on one occasion I said I just didn’t have the money to get him a coffee. He looked at me with eyes of compassion and asked if he could hug me. “Of course you can, Juan!” And as we embraced I have to admit that I smelled a different scent, it was certainly not as pleasant as the cologne that fellow who prayed for me had on. But I couldn't help but understand this embrace as being from Jesus himself. It was Jesus who told us that we would meet him in “the least of these, my brethren.” In that moment it wasn’t just Juan who was hugging me, it was Jesus himself.
I am a recent convert to the Catholic Church. I came into the church this past Easter vigil. Several years ago (long before I actually came into the church), I had been dabbling in Catholicism for quite some time when I came to the conclusion that Jesus really was present in the Eucharist; body, soul and divinity. I wouldn’t have phrased it that way back then, but I really felt it to be true. One day I decided to go to a weekday mass and I just went forward to receive the eucharist, before I was fully in the Catholic church. It just seemed right to me. I didn’t really have the knowledge of things regarding all the sacraments; this was way before I went through OCIA. Upon receiving for that first time, I went back to my seat and began to weep. It was a powerful experience for me; like Jesus was giving me a soft, gentle hug.
God wants to hug you. He loves you and wants to show it to you in so many ways. How do you experience this hug? Maybe you’ve already experienced one or two hugs from the Lord. Maybe you’ve never experienced the nearness of the Lord. Perhaps you’ve heard something in my story that resonates with your experience of the Lord. There are still ways you can place yourself into position to receive a hug from the Lord. It has to do with being in the thin places.
One example of a thin place is sitting in adoration with the Blessed Sacrament.
As I said earlier, Heaven is the atmosphere that surrounds us. In the Gospels Jesus tells us “the Kingdom of God is within you”. A “thin space” is where the Holy Spirit crosses the barrier between heaven and earth.” There we encounter God; there we come to know ourselves as loved and embraced by God. And there we are transformed into his image and from this place we can spread the fragrance of God all around.
2 Cor. 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
What does one do in Adoration?
When St. John Vianney was the pastor of his small parish in Ars, France, he frequently saw a parishioner of his praying in the church. The parishioner would sit there for hours on end—no book, no rosary, and no Bible. He would just sit there. One day, St. John actually asked the man, "I see you here so often. How do you pray?" The man answered, "I look at my Lord... and He looks at me."
I would add, “and He hugs me.”
Sitting before the Blessed Sacrament we are in a prime place to become more fully who God created us to be. St Paul tells the Colossians “your life is hidden with Christ in God”. This sounds to me like being hugged. What better place to be hugged by your Father and discover your essential self than before the Blessed Sacrament!