Ancient Daoism used water as a metaphor for finding harmony in the world, with nature, with one another, within one's self. I find it soothing and helpful.As the Tao Te Ching describes it, water finds its level and fills every nook and cranny. There is no place water can not find and silently and efficiently fill with its goodness. Left alone to patiently wait, muddy water comes to clarity, settles debris, and calms confusion. Water is soft and supple, yet supports heaviness and lifts and carries obstacles. A single drop of water, steady and consistent, over sufficient time will crack the densest rock.
For me, God, the indescribable that surrounds/upholds/leans toward goodness/yearns for wholeness/that which is/experienced as love, that God's love is like water. God's love waits indefinitely patiently; it never gives up. It is there before I ever come to consciousness. And the moment there is the slightest crack (hope? plea? need? surrender?) it flows into our lives without reservation or precondition. God's love will fill every dark corner of my hatred, prejudice, selfcenteredness, greed, delusion of ego and grandeur. God's love will lift me up and support me in acceptance of my already-goodness that was forgotten in the cachaphony of distractions around me. With patience, focused inwardness, the world's oneness become clear as the origin and goal of this love. God's love, our love breaks down walls of separation, dissolves hatred, finds meaning in service to others and compassion for the disadvantaged. In the presence of this love everyone, everyone is accepted as valid, of infinite worth, loving and deserving of love.
What if we saw God's face in the face of EVERY stranger? How would we respond?
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