“If I go forward, God is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive God.
I look to the left, God is hidden;
I turn to the right— nothing. Nothing.”
— Job 23. 8-9
It’s true: the God we’re seeking isn’t there—
you know, The Big Guy, that Huge Person,
the cartoon God, who does what we want,
who intervenes now and then but not always,
a God we can see and hear and touch,
or at least imagine.
Nope. There’s no such thing.
God is not a spirit but Spirit itself:
Love itself, Divine Wholeness,
Gracious Life Force,
the Delight in which everything is One,
Womb of life, blessing, and grace.
Is that too spacey, too woo-woo?
Yes. That’s the point.
(How badly we want God to be smaller—finite!—
knowable, and a whole lot like us.
How often we want the feeling
more than we want God!)
But God is beyond our sensing or knowing,
beyond our labeling—infinite, unsearchable—
and yet present, like gravity,
affecting everything, blessing everything.
You will rarely if ever “feel God’s presence”
any more than you feel the rotation of the earth
or the gifts of your DNA.
But let yourself love someone. There.
Or hold still and let a bug crawl across your wrist.
You both partake of Life.
Feel the bug, and your oneness.
Let yourself care about the bug.
There.
Trust grace and be kind,
and in that experience you will know God,
the One, Holy, present in every simple thing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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