Children…always
say, Do it again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly
dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But
perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, Do
it again, to the sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon… It may be that He has the eternal appetite of
infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than
we.- Gilbert
Keith G. K. Chesterton
He determines the number of the stars and
calls them each by name.
Psalm147:4, NIV
As
a seeker, and one who feels called to serve, I look forward to the moments when
God gets bigger. In my work as an
Interfaith Minister, God expands most readily in my encounters with those who
practice Faith Traditions that are different from my own. A few weeks ago, I had the thrill of
traveling, on an interfaith tour, to Turkey.
I must confess that in the 10 days we were there, my experience of God
busted right outta da box. Here are two
ways - for me - that God got bigger:
Just
before the trip, a friend of mine who is Sufi, had explained to me that in
Arabic, “Al” is affirmative, translating to mean, “yes,” and “Lah,” is
negative, or “no.” Al-lah. Yes-No.
Allah. Yesno.
Five
times a day, the Muslim Call to Prayer resounds from the minarets and mosques
On
a hot, windy afternoon, out beyond the nearest village’s Call to Prayer, God grew
again. It was when we visited the site
of Mother Mary’s home. Driving up the
mountain, high above Ephesus, I loved being pushed to imagine for the first
time, what had happened to Mary after the Resurrection. Where did this mother, this woman whom Catholic
Christians and others revere and entrust with their prayers, where did she go? It was then that our Tour Guide used a word I
wasn’t expecting. It was innocent, I’m
sure, when he said, “superstitious.” He
said it in reference to the fountains of holy water and the wall of prayers created
by those who have come to Mother Mary’s home.
How many times, I wondered, have I limited God’s bigness by labeling
certain practices as….superstitious.
Without hesitation, I went directly to the fountains, dipping my hands
in the holy water, touching my cheeks and throat with the cool wetness. I thought of how many times Jesus, Mary,
Mohammad, had been equally grateful for water’s refreshment. Rummaging through my bag, I wrote my prayer
on a piece of scrap paper and tied it faithfully to the wall of prayers. God grows….
Dizzying? Disconcerting? Wonderfully welcome? Where, in your world, is God getting
bigger? And when God grows, what happens
in you?
About Lauren: Lauren is an interfaith minister and lives in
Berkeley, CA. She serves as the Dean of
Interfaith Studies at The
Chaplaincy Institute and tends a private Spiritual Direction practice. You can read Lauren ’s
blog at: http://www.laurenvanham.com/
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