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We all know the tale. Goldilocks wanders into the forest and discovers a seemingly abandoned house. She enters the house and finds three chairs. One chair is too small; one chair is too large; the third chair is "just right." She then discovers three bowls of porridge on the table. The first bowl is too cold; the second bowl is too hot; the third bowl is "just right." Finally, she moves to the bedroom where she sees three beds. The first bed is too hard; the second bed is too soft; the third bed is "just right," and she proceeds to fall asleep until she is found by the three bears when they return home.

These children's fairy tales are fascinating, they can almost always be read on multiple levels. There is the light story level where characters interact and an enjoyable tale is told. Then there is the deeper level where a lesson is being taught. Certainly we have these elements in the Goldilocks story.

You don't have to be a Marxist or a Buddhist to agree with the story that there is something of value in the middle way. Yes, I do remember and agree with the Barry Goldwater quote, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," and I agree that there is no such thing as a "little" sin any more than there is something like being a "little" pregnant. That said, even the Christian extremist Paul exhorted his followers to a life of moderation.

I mention this because an old Christian classic by J.B. Phillips, "Your God is Too Small" is back in the news. In his book, Phillips explains that most of us have retained a conception of God that we built when we were children and that this necessarily sells God short. Phillips describes 12 unreal versions of God that he terms as destructive. Among these are God as resident policeman, grand old man, managing director and parent. Certainly God contains all of these, but when we limit God to being one of these, we make God far too small. Phillips calls for a God of awesome proportions who is beyond human understanding and who cannot be contained in our limited categories. A new book by Wildman and Garner and published by the Alban Institute has picked up that theme and updated it for our times. As Goldilocks showed us, an extreme position can be – and usually is – wrong.

I think we can just as easily argue that, for all too many people, their God is too big. Many people see God as "sacred," which means, "set apart," and we keep Him there. They see God as unapproachable and not concerned about the affairs of His children. When we do this, we become like the children of Israel who told Moses, "You speak to God; we're too afraid."

Like the Goldilocks story, we need a right-sized God, one who is neither too big nor too small. God is beyond knowing, yet God has chosen to be known by His children. God created the universe, yet He has chosen to walk in the garden in the cool of the evening to be with us. God is perfect and abhors sin, yet He has chosen to become the means for our redemption. We are to worship God as beyond all others, and yet are to call Him "Abba, Father," which means "Daddy."

If we can right-size God in our own minds and worship, we will have the best of all worlds within us.

Dr. Benjamin G. Davis was executive director of the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs in Frederick from 1996-99, teaches theology at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and is president of the University of North America. If you would like to respond, e-mail ben.davis35@ verizon.net.