I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.

You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.

Mine was a patchwork God, sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western, pagan and Hebrew, everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus.

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)

Teenagers who do not go to church are adored by God, but they don't get to meet some of the people who love God back.