God In Us, Through Us, All Around Us

For a lot of people, the idea of a loving God, who has our best interests at heart, is an idea that is foreign and hard to fathom.  This is a sad fact that has been compounded by the inability of our culturally dominant forms of Christianity to adequately speak of God in ways that are hopeful and life-giving.  

Within much of Christianity, God is relegated to the role of harsh critic and steely-eyed judge--the kind of judge who exacts a high price from those who step out of line.  

Philosopher Alan Watts once wrote: 

"When I first learned to play the piano, my teacher hit my fingers with a pencil every time I played a wrong note.  Consequently, I never learned to read music--I was afraid of that pencil, so I hesitated too long." 

Far too many of us have narrowed our view of God and denied ourselves the pleasure of learning to read music, so to speak because we insist on God being something that God isn't.  Our images of God as judgmental and angry also necessitate our imagining God as somehow separate and detached from us and our world--when, in fact, the exact opposite is true.  

And the evidence of God's closeness can be seen even in the things that can't really be seen.  Physicist Carlo Rovelli writes: 

"A handful of types of elementary particles, which vibrate and fluctuate constantly between existence and nonexistence and swarm in space, even when it seems that there is nothing there, combine together to infinity like the letters of a cosmic alphabet to tell the immense history of galaxies; of the innumerable stars; of sunlight; of mountains, woods, and fields of grain; of the smiling faces of the young at parties; and of the night sky studded with stars."  

God is not separated from us, God is in us, through us and all around us--the energy and love that exists between all things and all of us.  The Apostle Paul described it like this: "For in [God] we live and move and have our being."

This life-giving knowledge should give us comfort and bring us peace if we will embrace it.  So embrace this knowledge today.  Pray for awareness of the presence of God all around you.  Imagine God as intimately close, merciful, good and loving--because that is what God is... always.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.