The Face of God.

Do you know God?  Do you ever speak with her, him or it?  Do you believe in God?  Do you even know what God is?  Do you know where we’ve come from, where we’re going?  Do you know if there is any real order to the universe?  Do you know why I am attracted to large ladies who wear spandex?  These are all questions I can’t answer.  I have a friend who calls himself an atheist.  I also don’t understand that.  It’s like saying he doesn’t believe that he exists.  Not believing in God makes no sense to me.

I met a guy once who seemed pretty definite that he spoke to God, on a regular basis as a matter of fact.  He was very convincing.  He would have been even more convincing had he not insisted on total secrecy.  There was a rather large crowd of people surrounding him on a corner of Rideau street at the time.  In case you don’t know, that’s one of the busiest places in Ottawa.  He also had eyes painted on his eye-lids, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t converse with God.  It was, however, rather distracting.           

When I was a wee little willy wonderful, I would look up at the stars and wonder where it all ends.  Believe it or not, I would close my eyes and wonder where it all begins too.  The mysteries of the universe have always fascinated me.  And, although I have lived my whole adult life as a yogi and a mystic, I have not succeeded in answering those questions.  In fact, I frankly don’t expect that I’ll ever be able to answer those questions.  Meanwhile, I’ll tell you one humble, largely unknown fact that I have been able to uncover.

Somewhere along the path I discovered a very practical, down-to-earth way to get free of the problems that plague every person, in spite of caste, color, creed or cataract.  By acting opposite from what is normally considered natural, in other words by not acting at all for a while each day, I have seen the face of God, or at least the face of freedom.  And, by God, she’s wearing spandex.

Of course, everyone knows someone who believes that God is love.  With the New-Age catch phrase; ‘God is love,’ they try to impress upon us that God is, well, love.  How they reach that conclusion is beyond my comprehension.  They clearly ignore the reality staring them in their foolishly smiling faces.  Some still insist on walking around flashing the old peace sign, the v-shaped two-fingered salute of the innocent, hopeful, naive sixties.  Their jargon include phrases like; ‘All you need is love,’ the ever popular; ‘Give peace a chance,’ or even, ‘We are all one love,’ whatever that means.    

And yet, and yet, anyone who has ever experienced a simple love, someone who gave without asking anything in return, would agree there certainly seems to be something Godly in that.  It is beyond reason, of course.  As humans, up on our hind legs, rubbing sticks together for fire, looking up at the sun with a sense of wonder, something opens up within us when we are simply loved.  What could possibly be closer to any concept of God than the unconditional, fierce, primal, self-sacrificing love of a mother?  In love we find a release even from our own disbelief. 

Perhaps each day of our lives should be a prayer to that which we don’t know, don’t understand, for no greater reason than we also don’t know how better to enjoy the fleeting moments of our existence on this earth, and because it feels Godly.