Friday, October 19, 2007

Glimpses of God


The fall colors are at their height right now. As I drove home yesterday afternoon after two days away I was surprised to see how many trees has turned in such a brief time. It seems as if today's rain has made them even more vivid.

Yesterday a man I ran into asked me what I was doing in retirement. I told him that I am trying to live a more contemplative life.

"What are you contemplating," he asked.

"Mostly God in the beauty of nature around me," I answered.

"Pantheism, huh!"

"No," I said, "I think God is more than just nature."

Pantheism, if I understand it correctly, equates God and nature. While I find God in the beauty and power of nature, I also believe that God is way more than that. A hymn we sang when I was young had "Out beyond the searching of the farthest star/ Thou art evey stretching infinitely far."

God made us so that what gets into our heads and hearts comes through our senses. So when God wants to come to us the way is through our senses. The wildly varied, glorious colors of the autumn leaves are glimpses of God.

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