Reaching out to God and others.

August 25, 2016

God, who is the Creator of all that is, also creates in each of you a sense of peace and connection. The peace you feel may not be a peace defined as the absence of sadness or distress, but rather a peace that is characterized by a confidence that through all, God is. For what is peace but the ultimate recognition that the Creator of all remains present in all. Each of you in your own way is an instrument of peace. 

Each of you in your own way knows what it means to be peace-full, filled with peace. The concept of being peaceful is often a shallow understanding, a kind of detachment from what may be going on around one’s life, but that’s not really what being filled with peace means. 

All human beings, regardless of their condition in life, experience moments of real peace. Many don’t identify that peace as a kind of recognition of God, but their lack of recognition in no way negates that peace, for that recognition of God, that sense of belonging to the Creator, is most personally felt by the spirit within that is permanent. 

We speak so often of the presence of spirit, the importance of your own souls, the union of all souls as a single entity, but there is much that involves your soul that you are fully unaware of, for the soul is the strongest and permanent connection to the life-force that is God. The soul is the window to the light that is God. The soul is the arms that embrace God. 

Your connection with God is not merely as a recipient, for you give to God. You do embrace God, but God is not a figure with dimensions. God is a kind of energy whose force is pure love, and embracing God is a taking in of that love, making it your own. You are not passive in your interaction with God. It is not simply that you exist, and God presents light and love to that existence. That existence of light and love is certainly there, but it is you who reach out and pull that energy into your own being. That reaching out is the work of the soul. That reaching out is to God, but since all are part of what God is, you are reaching out to God when you reach out to another human being. You are reaching out to God when you reach out to the richness of nature. You are reaching out when you grasp the soil of the earth. You are reaching out when you offer your hand to another. 

The question was asked, “What can you do for the spirit of the one you love who you fear and yet recognize as an approaching loss to you?” Your prayers for peace, as we define it, are essential. That you know, but we also suggest a reaching out that is a truly physical gesture, for even when one is weak and preparing for a new life, the sense of touch is a powerful and direct way to transmit your love for another. A touching of the hand, a touching of the head, a touching of the heart are all deeply felt. The meaning is clear. No words need be said. The true expression of faith, the true expression of love is not with words, for words are at best a representation of something far deeper. The touch communicates far more. 

Think for a moment of individuals who are in conflict with one another—conflict of ideas, conflict of emotion, not an emotion that leads to fighting physically but clearly a condition that sets one in opposition to another. There is no touching. You cannot have an argument with another when you clasp their hands in yours. You cannot have an argument when you embrace the head or touch the place of the heart. Such gestures break down barriers that separate, and they only mean one thing—that you are united, that you are one with another. 

The one you care about who is approaching his transition is aware of touch and is comforted by it. His wife is equally comforted by touch. You are embracing God when you embrace another. That embrace is not necessarily an embrace as you perceive an embrace to be. You embrace merely by the touch. 

Think of times when others have grasped your hand in compassion and love. That has a very profound effect on the unity that is felt even more than the words “we’re thinking of you.” Of course those words are comforting, and they should not be withheld, but when an individual’s sense of environment become diminished, that sense of touch remains. 

So it is through touch that you express the love for another, and it is in that expression that you are embracing God. You are welcoming the presence of the creative energy that sustains you, and you are becoming one with it. As you reach out and embrace another, you are the expression of God. Your prayers for another are always an expression, for those prayers are offered with the intent of comfort and with a recognition of the oneness that is shared by all. 

Human life at its best is a life that reaches outward. Of course there are times when you reach outward not to touch another but to be touched by another. You are an expression of God, but you also reach out to seek God’s presence in your life. So that reaching out becomes an essential component to your connection to all that is. 

Reach out to nature. Find the smallest, most tender plant and embrace it with your thought. Find ways of connecting to the world around you in ways that you can touch and communicate. If you reach out in such manner to a tree, you will feel the energy of that tree. You will feel the energy of the Creator by which that tree exists. Reach down and grasp the soil beneath your feet, and give thanks for its life-giving presence. Reach out to your friends, and give thanks to their life-giving presence. 

You often reach out to thank us, for which we give you thanks, but your acknowledgment of us is limited by whatever refusal you may feel to embrace your neighbor. Relationships strengthen and deepen through the embrace of love. You do not have to physically hug everyone you come in contact with. You can embrace them by consciously embracing the beauty of their lives, even when their actions, their thoughts may be contrary to yours. There is a grace to all human beings, and by acknowledging that grace, you are acknowledging the embrace as being a reflection of God. 

We say often that you are sacred, but you are sacred in the way that all are sacred. No one is more sacred than another. Nothing that exists is more sacred. You are no more sacred than the stones beside a highway, for both are part of that same creation. When you look up into the sky at night and you see the stars, you share a common heritage. You share a common energy. You appear different, but you are not. 

As you proceed in your relationships with others, embrace and rejoice! We embrace each of you and we rejoice in the light you receive and the light that you give outward as you reach to the world that surrounds you. 

Amen.