Do You Think God Makes Mistakes?

I have been making lots of mistakes recently. Most recently, letting really big typos get by me regardless of multiple careful readings. This is pretty important since I am giving final approval to print my upcoming book, PRESENCE Recognizing the Divine in Your Everyday Life. I sent out what I thought was a final to close friends and family, and where I was hoping for an "atta-girl" response, instead I got, "Uh you made a typo here, and you made a typo there." It was embarrassing, slightly humiliating, and it definitely took the air out of what I thought would be a hip-hip-hooray announcement. Oh course, I have also made really dumb, consequential, or serious mistakes in plenty of other circumstances. Hello, I'm human?

So, it got me to thinking that if we are made in the image of God, does that mean God makes mistakes, too? What an incredible question. Think about all the things that "go wrong" -- do you think the Divine is chastising itself and saying, "Oh darn, I meant to move that mountain last night and I forgot."  What if God makes mistakes, and we are just unknowing recipients of that inheritance? 

My grandson broke a favorite bowl of mine a few days ago. His mother made him face the music and come apologize to me. I invited him to come stand close to me, but he froze about 20 feet away and mumbled that he was sorry. I told him right off that I would not kill him, and he didn't need to be afraid. (I thought that would at least set his mind at rest for that concern.) I said things like this are accidents. Sometimes an accident happens just because it is an accident. And sometimes it happens because we are careless. It's up to us to figure how much of each of those went into this one -- the broken bowl. Then I told him I loved him and thanked him for his apology. Pretty standard stuff.

I wonder what God wants us to do when we have made a mistake? What is the gift from the Divine that we may miss because of our fear, embarrassment, shame, or ignorance? Do we keep ourselves really far away? Are we afraid? Do we think we will get killed for our mistake? Or is all we must do is say we're sorry, try not to do it again, and give God a really nice, warm hug full of love. Cause, who knows, maybe God makes mistakes, too.