Many paths, one God

Many Paths, One God

Many educated people, including myself, believe that Jesus and even Muhammad are pathways to reach God.

I have always believed that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that God is incarnate. That God stepped into skin, into time, into suffering, because He is that big and that close. That belief has been my anchor since I was a kid.

But I also believe God is too vast for one language, one book, one culture. When I study, when I listen, I see how Muhammad became a pathway for billions — through discipline, through surrender, through the call to mercy and justice. I don’t have to erase Jesus to respect Muhammad. I don’t have to pick one door and nail the others shut. God’s house has many rooms.

When I first heard Obama, he was one person that I could resonate with. I felt the same about being biracial — the questions, the looks, the “where do you belong?” that follows you. I knew what it was to be raised with white family and experience the absence of a father. I knew what it was to have a mother that encouraged him to study and learn, who pushed books into his hands when the world wanted to hand him labels.

His story helped me become the person that I am today. Dreams from My Father didn’t just sit on my shelf. It sat in my chest. His story and his books helped me when I was going through identity issues, especially with religion and faith. Here was a man who said “I am a Christian” and also said “my faith is complicated.” Here was a man who could quote the Bible and also honor the call to prayer. He didn’t perform certainty. He modeled wrestling. And that gave me permission to do the same.

I used to think educated meant you picked a side and defended it to death. Now I think educated means you can hold two truths: Jesus is the Son of God and other people meet God on roads I haven’t walked. I believe in incarnation, and I believe God is incarnate in love wherever it shows up — in a mosque in Salem, in a jail cell prayer, in a Buddhist breath, in a mother telling her son to read.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we all are. But I’d rather stand before God having loved too widely than having judged too narrowly. Obama taught me that identity isn’t a cage. Faith isn’t a test you pass. It’s a life you live. Sinning, correcting, rising. Just like I’ve done from 2023 until now.

So yes, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. And I believe God is big enough to meet people through Muhammad, through Moses, through the ache in their own chest when they cry out at 2am. Pathways. Plural. Because the destination is that holy.