TODAY AT A MEETING

The discussion was about God—or our Higher Power—two words for the same thing. Which is the lesson I learned today…everyone has a different image of God. Even if you and I think of Jesus is God, I’m sure he is a different being to both of us. But beyond Jesus, are Mohammed and Moses. And for the Hindus alone there are Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu and Krishna and Sarasvati and Lakshmi and many, many, many other aspects—and names—of God. There is Buddha, who to me is a kind and wise and forgiving God—maybe the most "human" of all the gods.

Something became clear to me today—and that is, that God is a lot like whoever it is that is imagining Him. Which makes perfect, simple sense to me. Since we are all likenesses of God, why shouldn’t He (or She) be just like me—or you?

The older I get, the wiser I get, the more I see that God is really everything. God is what we are. God is what we see—imagined or real—all around us. The truth is…the Truth is: that God IS us. In other words, we ARE God. So how we picture God is up to us, it’s true.

I get nervous when people say that God told them to do this or that—which is not at all what I’m getting at here. I don’t hear voices from God, or God’s voice. I just know—when I look out at a forest of trees and am overcome by the beauty of the sun’s rays shining through the branches, that I feel this beauty I am seeing is a gift from God, and what I am seeing is really God revealing a small part of himself.

And one more thing: The eyes that are seeing the sun’s beautiful rays shining down through the tree branches, are God’s eyes too.