Where will I meet God today

Last night, I interrupted my youngest’s immersion in homework anxiety to share a short passage from the book in my own lap. What followed was one of those great gifts of paternity, as his active, young teenage mind probed mysteries I haven’t visited for a very long time. This morning, as he readied to leave for school, I asked him where he might meet God today.

…

Many months ago, Kevin waved his arm in a large arc, asking, “Isn’t this church beautiful? … Look at the size of those organ pipes… The soaring height of this ceiling… [etc.]” He explained their intention to raise our spirits to a certain sense of awe, but lamented that sometimes God seems too big.

Of course, God cannot be contained. Not in an enormous, magnificent cathedral. The oft-forgotten mystery of the Trinity means God is even too infinite to contain Godself. For all eternity God has flowed between three Persons. The notion of only Parent and Son is inadequate–even metaphorically.* No, God’s third dimension (The Spirit) unleashes God into all levels of creation–in God’s fullness, not separate from God’s other selves. It’s impossible to talk about this mystery with boundaries; and metaphors are always bounded.

Holy cow, this God is gigantic. No wonder we have to bow down to “Lord.” God is separate from me…

I don’t think so. That’s no fun. So if God is not too big for me:

Where will I meet God today?

I have a business flight later today, and surely God can be experienced in the awesome clouds through which I will pass. But maybe that will be too big for me. Instead, today, within my grasp:

I hope to pause, if just for the briefest of moments, when I meet the eye of another. For those instants, I hope to see souls. That is where I will look for God today.

And, I hope, at a few points today – maybe as I wash hands before a bathroom mirror – I will have the courage to look past my bad shave and unruly eyebrows, and stare into my own eyes. For I, too, have a soul…

…

As they departed for school, I asked: “Noah, where will you look for God today?” His older brother, not intended as part of the conversation, but being his older brother, of course, despite having a mouthful of toothpaste, interrupted: “I hope I’ll find him taking my physics test for me…”

Neil D. 2017-10-25