When we are very young, mommies and daddies (and to some extent all adults) seem to have amazing powers. They are big and strong and know everything. They can do fantastic things that are clearly beyond our ability to understand or imagine. They are to be respected, maybe even feared. Obedience to them certainly is the better option for tiny creatures.
One of the most incredible abilities that parents, especially mommies, have is that mysterious healing kiss. One well-placed kiss and, right away or in just a moment, the hurt fades away and all is better. Sadly, we grow older and the owies that we run into along the way are much, much bigger. Mommy’s kiss just doesn’t have the same healing force anymore.
It’s possible that sometimes, without even realizing it, we might want to believe in a god who can kiss it and make it all better. We hurt so badly, those we care for hurt so badly, our whole broken, bleeding world hurts so badly that we long for a god to magically intervene and set everything right. That god never shows up, like some wizard or superhero, to destroy the evil, and the evildoers, through prodigious deeds of power and might. Spoiler alert! God will not make it all better.
The God we are given is more like the parent who sits with their child day and night as that child battles some horribly painful, destructive disease. God is with us (Emmanuel), day and night, loving us, comforting us from our many fears. This God will hold our hand and walk with us through this life into fullness of Life.