The Nature of God
with thanks to LeeAnn for capturing the lovely sun dog
‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Acts 17: 28
We, as humans, are creatures of time and space.
We arrive in this world, and we leave this world.
Where we come from and where we go, is not ours to know.
God, as divine, is not a creature, not a created thing.
God is not bound by time, not confined by space.
God is not part of the continuum of human history as we are.
We are not God, but we are of, and in God, enveloped by God, infused with God,
our lives embraced, warmed by God.
The essence of the first and the second commandments, from which all else follows, is this:
to turn away from God, is to turn away from the richness of life and the fullness of joyful
possibilities which can be gifted to us, even in the midst of horror and devastation.
This turning away, is what is called idolatry, because when we turn away, we always turn to something else. We give some particular thing/person/idea power over free movement.
Idolatry stops the flow and gift of divine life. It ties us to statements we take as facts.
“This. …….. is never going to work.”
“I can’t live without……….
“I have to have ………
“It……will never happen…….
“There isn’t enough……….
These are idolatrous statements because they claim truth where there is none.
These idolatrous statements have no essential value, no bearing of truth.
Real truth, deep truth, like God, is unknown to us. If we are fortunate, we do, from time to time catch flickers of it, just enough to light the way for our next step into the unknown.
God is spirit. We are made in the image of God, and therefore are spiritual creatures too.
But our spiritual selves have put on the clothes of human form,
and we walk the line of our lives.
When we give ourselves over to things that are impermanent – as are our lives –
we begin to believe they have real weight and power.
They don’t.
The only thing that has true weight and power - omnipotence – unlimited power – is God –
and God - that great mystery impossibly stuffed into those three little letters -
cannot be contained in any theology or doctrine or institution or faith tradition
or sacred text any more than the wonder and richness of nuance that is you and I
can be contained by the information on your driver’s licence.
May grace continue to abide with us on our journey.
Candice’s Blog