A couple of weeks ago I went to what is probably my favorite concert of the year. At the concert the performer
talked about his bilingual six year old who knows that a door is a door,
and a puerta is a puerta, and they are the same thing, and they just
are. That led me to contemplate - you don't have to understand God or how God works to know and believe that God is present with us. God just is. I find, however, that if I don't make time to think about it, I begin to take God for granted. God is always there, God is miraculous, I need to clean that bathroom...God just is...
A few days after that concert I attended a small group class designed to help keep focus and balance during the holidays. We started with a quote from CS Lewis: "Learning to recognize God's presence in all of life, in pain as well as
pleasure, in disappointment as well as fulfillment, in fear as well as
peace -- requires discipline, a discerning heart, and a keen
sensitivity to the Holy Spirit." It echoed the thoughts I had already had about paying attention, listening, watching, being conscious of the presence and activity of God. But Lewis didn't tell me how to do that. Where is my Google Map to achieving that discipline, that discerning heart and that keen sensitivity?
We then looked through a series of photos to choose one that spoke to us personally. I chose:
After selecting a photo we were asked to consider a series of question as they related to the picture, the principal question being what does it reveal about the nature of God? As I reflected on the questions I realized that although I chose based on gut feeling, when I paused to consciously think about it what really spoke to me was the tenderness with which the soldier holds the child, and yet, as a soldier it is likely that he has killed people. Although he holds the child like a father, he maintains a clinical detachment with the blue gloves. It is clearly cold and yet the child is barefoot. There are a number of soldiers in the background, but none of them can be seen caring for others. It is a picture of dichotomies, oppositional states of being that I really have to think about in order to reconcile them.
In much the same way Lewis juxtaposed pain and pleasure, disappointment and fulfillment, fear and peace, making God all-encompassing. This picture conveyed that same message for me on this day. But, it may say something different on a different day, or to a different person, in a different place. It's OK to know that God is God, but I really do need to look around, pay attention, and recognize that God is with us in the light and in the dark, in the good and the bad, in joy and disappointment... in all things.
