A while back I saw a spoof version of the famous 'Footprints' poem that ended up something like 'when you see only one set of footprints it was then that we were hopping' (there's also a version about dancing).  Over the last week or so, as I've been pondering what to say about Habakkuk on 'authenticity' it came back to me, and I think that, whatever its intention, it actually has a better message than the original.

Our life experience is not usually that we are carried through the tough times, rather that are a real slog - not unlike hopping a long distance.  I think I'd rather imagine God hopping alongside me, sharing in my struggles, than as someone who scoops me up out of the nastiness of real life.  I think this is more authentic theology (mourn with those who mourn, laugh with those who laugh) and more helpful.  If we believe, as I do, that in the cross, Jesus and hence God somehow embraced and shared suffering, then a God who shares the hopping and the dancing seems good to me.

This week our TV news has been filled with accounts of murder and mayhem.  People may well ask where God is.  Hopping mad with those who are enraged, limping with those who limp from moment to moment - and big enough to take our anger, questioning and pain.  "Our God is a great big God" who hops with us, hand in hand.