In today's first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, Paul reminds us that the "God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is [God] who gives to everyone life and breath and everything....In him we live and move and have our being...."
"[W]e live and move and have our being" in God as a fish lives and moves and has its existence in water! Without water a fish dies. Without God, you and I die. In water a fish thrives. In God you and I thrive.
God, Paul tells us, "does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands." Where, then, does God dwell? If we "live and move and have our being in God," then God, an infinite, eternal Being separate and distinct from us, lives within us. We are one with God and God is one with us, yet distinctly separate from us! We are not God and God is not us! God does exist apart from us but we do not live apart from God anymore than a fish lives apart from water or a branch cut off from a tree!
Oh, the intimacy of God! This intimate God is Creative Energy that gives life, sustains life, purifies life, transforms weakness into strength, disunity into unity, ugliness into beauty, sinfulness into holiness. And in doing all of this and more, God needs our cooperation, as we have been given a free will by God. We are capable of choosing evil over good, ugliness over beauty, as God will not take away our freedom to choose! We are capable of being divisive and not cooperating with God's grace. We are capable of choosing that which weakens our character instead of that which strengthens us as God's offspring! The choice is always ours!
How did you choose today?
No comments:
Post a Comment