God is Creator and Creation.
March 14, 2023
It is the spirit of God who embraces your lives at all times and under all conditions. We like to say that you are all children of God, but of course that anthropomorphic shaping of reality is far less a view of reality than what we see from our perspective.
We spoke about forgiveness when we last were together. The concept of being children of God has included in it the hierarchy that was mentioned, mainly parent over child, wisdom and power over a child’s process of becoming. God’s true relationship to you is not a parent and child relationship. It is a relationship which is more like the cells in the hand belonging to the totality of the human form. It is not one of dominance but rather of belonging. You are not children of God in that human sense as an analogy. You are a vital part of the whole. You belong to the whole. That which is your reality belongs to the reality of the whole.
The arm does not dominate over the hand. The ear does not dominate over the finger. All belong. All are a part of the totality, and the totality achieves its destiny because of the belonging of all of its components.
So it is with you and your relationship to God. You are essential in providing the connection between the Creator and the impact of that creation on all that is. Without what is created is there a meaning for God to exist? God is both a creating force and all that has been created. There is no distinction between the Creator and creation. All belong as a unit.
We speak about forgiveness, acceptance, and how those concepts may be differently applied. When you see yourself as a part of God, truly a part of God, then you see everything as being a part of God. There is no part of the body of creation that is subservient to the totality of what is. All is essential. All that has been created is essential, for all that is created belongs to a consideration of God as a reality.
You may say the universes, that which you know and those that remain unknown, are all part of the creative reality that God is. The universes exist because God is, and God exists because the universes exist. You live because God created life, but God lives because you live. The Creator lives because the creation lives. It is for that simple reason that all that exists is part of the Spirit Center identified in your terms as God.
When human beings pray to God, it is often that such prayers are offered to some separate kind of energy, and there is a supplication of sorts that God comes and is present, that God strengthens, that God cures, that God does something that human beings are incapable of doing. The truth to God’s being present is that the manifestation, the fulfilling of that presence for human beings is through other human beings. This doesn’t mean that if you live alone you do not experience God’s presence, but it does mean that for the person who lives alone, there is no true isolation.
There are those who pray for peace, for understanding, for healing of one sort or another. There are those who pray that somehow the presence of love can prevail. That presence exists and is active at all layers in all directions at all times. The sun, as it were, is constantly shining, and at times some of you find yourselves clearly in the sunshine, but you also find yourselves clearly in darkness. Such altering of reality between light and dark does not in any way diminish the reality that that light is always there. Seen or unseen, felt or unfelt, it is there. The love that grows because of the love that is exercised by others is an energy that radiates outward and benefits all, whether one lives alone or in community with others.
That sense of being part of the totality of all that exists can seem overwhelming at times. One can think “how is it that little me has any presence at all when considering the vastness of the universe as we know it to be?” That universe exists solely because of what is contained within it. If the universe were totally empty, there would be no identity of its existence.
When love is expanded, love brings light to everything. It is through human effort that love is expanding on earth. That love is not expanding between chemicals or between electrical charges. The love, the conscious acceptance of another, is a human capability. It is true that all that exists is in its own way in a state of motion, a state of evolving, a state of changing and becoming, but it is the human life that is the most prominent example of expanding God’s love.
There is a kind of love that exists between humans and nonhuman animal forms. There is this acceptance. There is this ability to feel affirmed, strengthened, uplifted by the presence of another. Domestic pets can experience true separation. Those pets can also be warmed through the affection, the attention, the uplifting presence of human beings.
All that exists is evolving. If you examine a rock, you learn of its evolution. You learn of its transformation, and you can see evidence of that transformation continuing. It is not so much a conscious love, but it is a sense of growth, of evolving, of becoming, of transforming into something different but necessary.
Suspending judgment of individuals, not their behaviors, not their ideas necessarily, but the individuals is an important part of this expanding wall of love which is a part of God’s love. Human beings on earth have a special capability, one that allows for self-reflection, one that permits forgiveness, that permits acceptance, that allows for reaching down or reaching up.
The reality of your lives is very much a part of God’s impact on life, for God’s power has its greatest strength when it is emitted from others. You ask God for peace, but that peace will not come down from heaven like gentle rain falling from the clouds. The peace that you often ask for is the lack of tension between peoples and nations. Such peace that you pray for is really only enacted through others. When you pray that peace be restored, you’re actually praying that the heart vision experienced by others is clear and constant. The peace comes from human interaction. It doesn’t come from a magical place called heaven, for peace in the end is an acceptance, not just a forgiveness.
When warring parties agree to peace, it is often without forgiveness. One country cannot readily forgive the suffering incurred by another nation, but the peace that is achieved is actually a recognition that there are some directions that can be pursued together. Sure, there are examples of wars being fought and the losing power being willing to give up its pursuits, but what happens after the end of those hostilities? The losing party does not disappear. The losing party ultimately finds common ground for moving ahead, even with the victors.
Achieving peace, therefore, is not this ray of light coming from heaven and everyone bows down and says, “Let there be peace.” It comes from each of you. It comes from your prayerful openness to accepting the equality of others. It comes from such acceptance leading to the conviction that there is nothing to be gained by control, by subjugation. All of the elements that go into creating peace as an absence of conflict involve a commitment of human beings one to another.
You pray for compassion. It is not that God suddenly changes people into becoming compassionate but rather the commitment of people to the ultimate value of compassion. Praying for peace is praying for an open heart. It is not praying for some power coming from heaven. This is just one example of the reality of all human beings to the enacting of God’s presence. That wisdom, that view of being one is always present, but it is human beings who must embrace that reality which in turn brings about what is truly prayed for when asking God’s presence.
Human lives at their best are lives of service, not in a subjugated way, but directed toward giving meaning and direction to others that in turn point to the unity of all. That commitment to others may be intellectual, spiritual, philosophical. It may be in very concrete ways through medicine, through sciences. But the commitment ultimately must be made to dedicating a life to those activities that serve to enhance the lives of others, not just self.
You don’t live on an island. You live in a village, whether that village is large or appears to be consisting of only you. Nevertheless, there is an interdependence that joins all together, and in that joint strength, you are bringing to life God’s presence, the presence that you pray for.
Life is precious not because you are alive but because life belongs to the entire creation. When you consider life, you consider all that relates to life, that which brings joy, that which brings pain or sadness. All lives are sacred. The cell found in the hand is as important as the cell in the ear or the eye or the foot. Together you are all God’s presence. In your own individual ways, each of you is God because each of you is essential to God’s very existence. We hope always that you feel this connection to one another and that you realize that the God you seek is the God within you. It is the God who is your neighbor. It is the God in everything that exists, all that you know of and much more that you have no awareness of at all.
The God who created you has created countless universes, and those universes have other knowing life-forms that recognize the presence of the creative and sustaining and unchanging energy presence. God is a God for all, not just what you know, but for all beyond your knowledge, and it is that bond of shared creation that unites you with one another, that connects you to God’s presence, and illuminates your pathways of growth.
Amen.