God is Nonbinary | 2025 Pre-Conference Devotional

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

— Isaiah 55:9, NRSVue

We’re continuing our exploration of our conference shirt with another phrase we offer for contemplation: “God is nonbinary.”

What exactly could it mean to say “God is nonbinary?” This is a fascinating theological exploration, and an exploration many are hesitant to journey on. After all, doesn’t God use he/him pronouns? Wasn’t Jesus incarnated as a man? Aren’t we supposed to say “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” when referring to the Trinity?

We could get deep into the weeds of various theological frameworks here, from biblical studies to doctrines of God to sociological commentary on gender itself. We could talk about how the word meaning “spirit” is a feminine form in the Hebrew Bible, disrupting our norms of male-gendered divinity. We could explore the verse where Jesus describes himself like “a hen” gathering her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37), giving a motherly image of Christ. We could discuss further how different people experience their own nonbinary identity, of which I am simply one example!

So I want to invite us into the wonder of what it could mean for God to be nonbinary: 

Being nonbinary is about disrupting systems and norms. Some nonbinary people (myself included) feel that binary genders are too limiting, or don’t fully explain their reality. For many nonbinary people, their gender identity is often a rejection of a binary system that says humans can only exist in two ways of being.

And who is better at challenging our human norms and our ways of thinking than God? In a world in which humans seek to know all the answers, God invites us to practice faith by reminding us, “my ways are higher than your ways” (Isaiah 55:9).  In a society built on hoarding wealth, Jesus proclaims, “blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20). And just when we thought we’d figured the whole God-Jesus relationship out, the Holy Spirit is a holy wrench thrown into our binary understanding of the Divine.

So when I say God is nonbinary, I say it because I worship a God who doesn’t abide by our human rules or systems. This God has holy ways of being that may be challenging for us to understand. But it’s beautiful that we have the word “nonbinary” to help us describe what we can’t fully understand: a Triune God that created and loves us and is disrupting our systems and norms for the sake of a greater diversity.

Where do you see God’s diversity reflected in nature, in your community and throughout your day?