Tehom as Womb
Essay Written for Theology 1, God as Creator of Heaven & Earth
Indigenous children will hear from their community an important truth in their childhood – a truth that is believed to be embodied as they come from the womb: you are born with all you will need for your entire lifetime. From the moment of birth, it is the responsibility of the village elders to remind and retell this magical truth to the future generation…all the wisdom you will encounter is known to you already (Trauma Stewardship, Lipsky, 8). Heaven and Earth serve humanity, and all creatures, as their tehom (womb) reminder: God is a radical creator who created heaven and earth from the rhythms of the not quite yet to form a communal orchestra of earth’s full glory and human’s responsibility to one another, and God’s love for all of us in relationship (Migliore, 108-109; Keller, 47,49).
Heaven and Earth are tangible markers of God through the reminder of the womb of which we all come from through which grace carried and love birthed. Keller offers through a process lens that creation showcases the spirit taking on flesh and continuing to become through the genesis of God’s gracious and loving nature (Migliore, 96) of every creature and human (Keller, 52). “God is in all things; all is in God” (Keller, 52-53). A womb is not a void, yet a loving and gracious space of creation that offers life. “The creation of the world is the first of the majestic and gracious acts of (God)” (Migliore, 96). Heaven and Earth are the genesis of God’s ever-unfolding love for all that are in existence (96).
Heaven and Earth display and offer space for God’s desire of relational community to unfold (Migliore, 108-109). Keller’s offering and interpretation of tehom showcases God’s relational mysterious ways as an orchestra with rhythm and pulsing vibrations (49-50). Creation’s genesis isn’t chaos. It’s a community being built to find its harmony and God so loved the world and all creatures, that God invited us in. When God said that Adam needed a companion, perhaps it was a continued offering of just how deeply relational God is – Heaven and Earth was not enough for relationships alone, God desired a whole collective to inhabit it.
Heaven and Earth is the marker of a creator that is infinitely mysterious and radically other beyond understanding (Migliore, 104; Keller, 55). However, coming to a deeper awareness of the words we say out loud in prayer and liturgies, such as the Apostles Creed matters (Migliore, 97). I believe in God as “Creator of Heaven and Earth” because despite this infinite mystery that is of God there is before us in every hue, emotion, human face, soil and collective a marker and invitation of a God who loves us, birthed us from grace, makes infinite space for us no matter who we are and encourages us to tend to one another. Just as the indigenous elders remind their children, we too, must remind one another and repeat the truth of creation as loving, collaborative, and of God.