Who is God to Me?

Who is God to me?  This seems like as good a question as any to begin my thoughts on religion.  My perceptions of God have changed over time, as I imagine most people's do.  I suspect God has been the same the whole time, but the way I understand this higher power has evolved as I've grown up, matured, and observed the effects of God in my life.  For simplicity's sake I will refer to God as "He", though I definitely feel God has a feminine component as well.  To me the word "God" means heavenly parents, father and mother, my literal spiritual predecessors.  Because of this lineage, I think there is something heavenly in me, and because I think everything and everyone that I encounter every day was created by God, there is something heavenly in you, too.

When I was a kid I loved a movie called Pete's Dragon.  In this movie the main character, Pete, is an orphan trying to escape from his wicked foster family, the Gogans.  Pete has a friend, an invisible gigantic green dragon that only he can see, named Elliot.  When Pete is having a hard time, Elliot is there to support him.  When Pete is enjoying life, Elliot is there singing with him.  When things get really desperate, Elliot saves Pete.  Finally, at the end of the movie when Pete is safe and has a loving family of his own, Elliot explains that he must move on to help another child, but that he does love Pete.

I find parallels to the Pete's Dragon story in my own young life.  While Elliot is a monstrously sized creature that could hurt Pete, he chooses to protect Pete instead.  As a child I felt similarly about the horses who raised me.  They were so large compared to me, and I knew they could hurt or kill me in an instant.  But I found great satisfaction in creating a friendship with these huge animals and by so doing I found in them my Elliot.

When I began to consider the idea of a god in high school the easiest association for me was to Elliot, and to my horses.  I certainly had relationships with large horses, who could do great damage in short order, but who chose to let me ride them and who thankfully kept me safe.  This connection revealed to me what God was to me at that time.  A protector, a support, a powerful force for safety and love in my life.  Because I felt so much at home in a barn with a horse, God came to mean home to me as well.

In my contact with equines, I generally have found them to be incredibly forgiving creatures.  Of course they each have their own personalities, but on the whole I'm always impressed with how much human nonsense they will tolerate.  We humans, a predatory species, will climb onto a horse, a prey species.  We grab him at the base of the neck where a predator would attack, but before we do that we strap the hide of another dead animal to his back and call it a saddle.  Going entirely against his instincts, a horse will allow us to do all of this to him.  We humans, and especially I, make so many mistakes when trying to communicate with these creatures, but they generally forgive me and acknowledge that I'm making an earnest attempt to do the right thing.  I associate this temperament with God.  I mess things up so regularly, but God in His forgiving mercy and grace, still likes me and wants to help me.

Generally I believe God to be a kind, merciful, powerful, loving, forgiving entity that is actually involved in my day to day life.  Kind of like a horse. 

Jeremiah 29:11  New International Version (NIV) 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."