It’s funny how the strangest things can get my attention and lead me off in a direction that may have nothing to do with anything.

Today that happened. I was reviewing my Spam folder prior to emptying it. Near the top was one with the subject line “We need people BAD!” (It was from “Research Group”.)

I read that and my thought immediately was “That’s what I was saying yesterday!”

We need people BAD. I’ve heard a lot of people in my life say “Oh, I don’t do church. I mean, I believe in God, but I commune with God alone, not in church.”

Well, I can respect that. I too commune with God alone. I love sitting on a beach, or on a mountain top, in the middle of a desert or a snowy prairie, and connecting with my Divine Companion. Just the two of us, preferably (but not necessarily) under a wide, cloud-free, starry sky. My Companion speaks to me there, or just cradles me, my head against His shoulder (in those times, my Companion is definitely present to me as male.)

But we need people BAD. It’s the tinder of numerous voices lifted in song, praise and worship to the Companion of All that keeps the spark glowing. I need that too. As much as I need the quiet times beneath starry skies.

And whether or not folks admit it, I really think we ALL need the group. Today, my references to the Divine Other specifically refer to that Reality as Companion. God is our Divine Companion, walking with us wherever – WHEREVER – we sojourn. It is that Companion who caused us to be; and I believe that Companion which causes us to be social creatures, not solitary ones.

Some of us are largely social, for whom a little quiet time now and then is nice. Others of us are largely private, for whom social time now and then is healthy.

But ya know, I don’t care whether one is primarily social, or primarily private. Sojourning alone or in groups, we all must seek out the Companion.

Baboons and Cheetahs.

Gosh! It’s been nearly 3 weeks since I posted last. I feel bad about that, in a way, but not really. My blog serves as an outlet for ME to write when I feel the need to, or when I feel led to. The day it becomes a burden is the day I close it down.

I embarked, over a month ago, on a rather strenuous journey here to define my understanding of God. In my efforts, I forgot a simple fact that we as humans can never know the ultimate truth of who and what God is.

That said, I can express my understanding of who God is to me at this point in time; I can attempt however poorly to express the reality of God in my life as I experience God today. My journey thus far has taught me that this expression of God today will surely change by tomorrow.

Recently, I was part of a conversation that discussed why we should never turn someone away. In my rather limited ability to fully express myself clearly – or perhaps more truthfully, in my tendency to over simplify what I’m trying to say – I said “Because when we turn someone away, we turn away Jesus.” It was pointed out to me that I was by that statement forcing Jesus into the role of cosmic policeman.

So, on my drive today (fully 3 weeks after said conversation) I was meditating on what I truly meant.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16 (The Message) Paul says to us “You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you?”

Each of us, whether the vilest criminal and sinner or the most pious of holy persons, is the temple of God; and in our temple is what I have come to call a “God-spark”.

Some of us never encounter this spark within ourselves. Others commune with it daily. Our quest in life, ultimately, is to seek down into ourselves and encounter this God-spark, even merge our spirits into it.

When we engage in this quest, each encounter with another person enables the sparks within each individual to glow brighter. The more we open our hearts to others, the more we kindle our God-spark.

First, the mild glow spreads then blossoms into a gentle, lightly flickering flame as of a small candle in a darkened room. With each encounter, with each subsequent growth of our circle of association, that flame continues to grow.

God more fully exposes to us the reality of God’s presence within each of us. At times, our God-sparks can dwindle back to a little spark, at others when we encounter each other in worship, a conflagration occurs. God’s presence in each coalesces into God’s presence to all. Profound experiences of God’s presence in and to the world are felt, I believe, when the God-spark in us explodes into a wildfire.

When I turn away, or fail to welcome, a stranger, I am turning away not only that individual, not only Jesus, but another God-spark, another opportunity to meet God and to ignite in the world the wildfire of God’s love. I diminish myself as well as the other.

This is what exclusion does to our world. Exclusion on a social or cultural scale deepens the darkness of spiritual night that surrounds us all, threatening to encroach and snuff us out. We as a society needs to, must learn that exclusion is not protection but ultimately our downfall. When society learns to welcome and embrace the diversity of experience around us, the wildfire of God’s love can burn so fiercely as to deprive the dark of it’s power. Imagine, a world awash in a flame so bright that the very night is banished.

Call it God’s love, or Allah’s love, or call it what you will, my vision can not override yours, and my truth of the Divine Other is not yours. But that Divine Other, in all it’s many facets and manifestations is true for all. When that Divine Other is aflame in this world, oh what a world that would be!

What can we know (or think we know) about the nature of God? A correlative question would necessarily be (in light of my foregoing discussion) Can we accept the following hypothesis: “God is immutable, human comprehension of the nature of God is not”?

This is how I ended my last post over 2 weeks ago. I can’t say I’ve given it a lot of thought in that time. I had hoped for some comment, but none was forthcoming. So, I’ll answer my second question. Yes, I accept the hypothesis that God does not change, but human comprehension of the nature of God does, indeed, change.

Once we looked around, and we connected with a divine reality, we figured there must be many of them to explain the forces about us….

Then we began to allow that understanding to coalesce into the understanding that there was but one divine reality that explained all of them… But we weren’t yet ready to comprehend our own natures sufficiently, nor were we able to fathom something that was not essentially a grander us, namely we anthropomorphized our understanding of God… and the concept of the old man with flowing robes and a beard was born!

And on this old man, we placed our own faults and failings, while trying to declare him to be without faults and failings… so we contrived this concept of the angry God, wreaking vengeance and violence on the world on our behalf.

Our comprehension of the Divine paradigm changed, mutated to accept oneness. In time, some came to see that the divine paradigm was changing once again… this time to embrace a loving Divinity. And this space and my time are too finite to delve into the entire evolution of humanity’s understanding of the Divine.

So, what can we know (or think we know) of the nature of God?

I’ll throw out one or two things that I am comfortable in saying I know.

First, I’m comfortable with the notion/understanding that the Divine is ultimately responsible for the coming in to being of all creation… hence I’m comfortable in saying that this Divine Other CREATED all things. The method, however, of this creation is at this time incomprehensible.

Second, I’m comfortable with the notion that God is limited by God’s own Will. In other words, while God is not limited by external laws of nature or other forces imposed upon the Divine, God has chosen to impose upon God’s self, limitations.

So, thirdly, I can say I’m comfortable with the concept that God is Love, and the source of all Love.

Now, it’s your turn. Can you add to this list?