#19 God

Finding a picture I've taken that sums up "God" was harder than I thought it would be.   I'm still not really satisfied.

It looks cliche.

Why is God always summed up in a sunrise?  Obvious answers include the conspicuous "light" metaphor, or the even more noticeable "sun" metaphor, the source of everything.

Or perhaps, all those inspirational posters with God quotes also have sunrises because it suggests a peace or an awe that escorts the dawn into day.  How else would you describe that time but holy?  The reverence of morning reminds me of God.

However, I want more than that.  If I had more options, perhaps instead of a picture, I'd play a sound.

As much as images paint poignant and lasting impressions, nothing soaks in like something I've heard.  Music can be all encompassing in ways that cannot be replicated by the other senses.

When I picture God as a sound, I hear the Who-chorus singing to their spangle-stripped holy morning.  It's a song that makes the heart awaken.

"Fa who fo-raze!  Da who do-raze!"  They sing not because they have nothing left, but because life is too sacred not to.  Morning is here!  Their song is a sweet promise.  It is a simple wisdom.  It feels like a hallelujah use to.  I see it as nothing more or less than the purest, most unconditional and freeing love.

Love like gravity.  Love like color.

Love so full and complete that we cannot see it all or understand it all and so often we take it for granted or forget about it.

That's what I think of when I think of God.

While my father and I may disagree, I know my capacity to fathom God comes from my own mortal parents.

 I was always blessed by words like "Who loves you?"
To which I would smile back and say, "You do, Dad."
And he would say, "No matter what."
And I would repeat "No matter what."

It took very little imagination to imagine love of that nature coming from a Heavenly Father.

How did I know my Godly Father loved me?  Because I was given a body?  One that can see, hear, taste, smell and touch?  Because that body could grow?  Because I was given the capacity to learn and choose?   Because each day, I am given another sunrise?  Another breath?

Or because I can feel?  All those things being true, I knew because I could feel it.

And that changes everything.

I believe in a God who loves.  Simple as a s'more.  He loves us because He knows us.  And because He knows us, and loves us, He has provided us ways to be happy.  He wants it for us.

And I'm not talking about bubble-gum machine weekend part-time happiness.   I'm talking real, fine craftsmanship, home grown, worthy investment happiness.  The kind that not only serves you now, but the kind that can be passed down forever.  Heirloom happiness, perhaps.

While I cannot confirm nor deny a particular first name, I can tell you that when I talk to God, I feel a deep peaceful understanding of love.

It moves me to love others and seek after things that are good.  His love is one that rouses me to find truth.  His love spreads seeds of gratitude that has taken the deepest root in me.

There is so much that I know because of the love of God.  I know that as cliche as a sunrise is, like His love, it will always be there.

And it will always be the most brilliant thing I see all day.

Don Replies:


I'm glad that your experience with God is so pleasant.  I'm a bit jealous of that.  Somewhere along the line for me, other people's "religion" got in the way of my experience of God.  I've spent my entire adulthood trying to get to that space where it's just God and me, but what I heard in my childhood about a God who is often angry and vengeful almost always gets in the way.  On a rational, abstract level, I can separate what I was told from what makes sense to me today, but on an emotional level, I'm still often bitter and jaded.  And I don't just get angry at all the dogma and doctrine that's screwed up my ability to make peace with The Eternal, but I get angry that God would allow it to happen as well.  It seems to me that if God is an active force in the everyday lives of ordinary human beings, then the one thing He would care about (and take care of) is how He gets portrayed by the people who claim to know him the best.  So for me, I struggle to have a very simple faith -- that God is more kind, loving, and forgiving than the "official" script portrays Him to be.