Mar 01, 2016

God is Love (1)
1 John 4:8

Love is patient. (1)
1 Corinthians 13

 

We are looking at the way we see God, in the light that God is Love as expressed in the first letter of John, chapter 4 verse 8, and see how we understand God, using the definition of love as express in First Corinthians.
The first expression is that Love is Patient. But is that how we see God? As I see it, it is amazing how patient God has been with humanity, and yes, with each one of us.
First we will look at humanity, and a glimpse from writings from many sources how humanity has viewed God over the millennia.
One of the most obvious facts that screams at us looking back on the history of humanity is that God has not intervened in the historical process of humanity in an outward manner in any form or shape, except to raise up those who had closer insights into God on a regular basis. We call them Prophets, Teachers, Masters, and many other names denoting their impact on the ways of humanity by their words that have influenced the path of civilizations, but it is clear that God has shown remarkable patience in providing guides, slowly, that have unveiled more and more of the likeness of God over time, sometimes in remarkable ways.
Humanity has been around for somewhere about 100,000 years. From the archeology found, it was somewhere about that time ago that the first traces of actual thinking came about. Vessels that are over 70,000 years have been found, and the first glimmer that could be considered the beginning of seeking beyond oneself appears about 60,000 years ago in clay figurines that may have been used for some type of worship or at least a community gathering symbol. Musical instruments that are over 40,000 years old have been found, basic flute like instruments. Burial symbols or honoring of the dead precede even modern humanity by 25,000 years or more, so that has been continued at many grave sites throughout time since then, and obvious honoring of dead and trying to draw close to the spirits of the dead has a long history that is truly fascinating to follow.
I understand that many holy books, including our bible, has God intervening directly in their stories, and certainly the pagan gods intervened in their stories on an almost daily basis. But all of these stories are basically just that: myths (and I mean that in a good way) created to enhance and explain events in the long ago past. (Myths are stories woven around actual events to explain the history and the trails of how a civilization arrived at a given point with a given history, usually spoken stories handed down to instruct the truths as understood by the story tellers, and eventually written down. These stories were not history as we understand it, that is a recording of events, but were stories meant to impart a central Truth as understood by that community.)
So how does God figure into all this? The way I understand it, God is an attractive force pervading the universe that is drawing all rational beings towards itself, so that eventually all rational beings will understand that they are truly living in paradise, right here and right now, or as Jesus described it, living in “The Kingdom of God lies within you”, Luke 17:23. God is truly patient, and has eternity to achieve that end, so there is no reason to hurry anything. We are drawn to God in an inexplicable way, and science is just discovering that this pull from God is part of the basic rational awareness gift package that make us able to think and do all the wonders that we have accomplished, including the pull to find meaning beyond the physical form of matter as commonly understood.
God has inserted Itself in historical humanity in the forms of prophetic figures, with, perhaps the figure of Jesus as the true Spirit of God in our world, opening up the final road to true understanding of reaching a firm relationship with that Spirit we call God. These prophetic forms, and Jesus was only one of them, have shown paths that create a loving atmosphere in our world, thus creating paradise on earth, just as Jesus promised, when he said “The Kingdom of God lies within you.” Luke 17:20.

“Nor will they say,
‘Look, here it is!’ or
‘There it is!’
For behold:
The Kingdom of God lies within you.”
                                    Luke 17:23

Meditation

My Eternal Wisdom, teach me patience. I am astounded when I look at the Patience and Love that you have shown humanity, despite how grossly humanity has taken your gifts to us and twisted them to prove our own superiority, that we are the gods of this world. We kill in your name, we drive fear into others by brandishing a fearsome figure and calling it You, we cheat others in your name, we let others starve and parish and say we are doing it in your name, because we are your chosen ones, not those others. You guide those in pain to our doorstep, and we discard them or put them in prison so as to be out of sight, all while proclaiming we are your followers. Yet you are patient with us, understanding we are but small children in the process of maturing, and slowly progress is being made. We are grateful that war seems to be diminishing in intensity, that the number of the poorest of the poor are lessening, that slowly we are educating the world. I am truly grateful to be here in this time, to watch and observe an ever increasing rising of humanity to be what we were created to be. I bow in gratitude for Your everlasting patience and overwhelming Love that you cover humanity, so that our faults are hidden. You see us as perfect, in the process of becoming adults, and slowly perfecting ourselves in what we can be, and like a child, our perfection is at the heart of our being, no matter what we seem to be doing on the surface of our lives.

 

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