Scripture: Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven, find
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish, generic
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, drugstore
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Thought for the Day: I know many people who read this column have trouble with the Biblical language used to portray God’s interaction with creation. I have trouble with it as well. Written by people with virtually zero understanding of the natural world, the Bible presents God as a being in control of literally everything in the universe. What we have trouble understanding in our postmodern age of science and reason, is that even then, most of the authors were writing in metaphor. Yes, many people believed the sun moved across the sky because a God was dragging it behind his chariot. But most people, I think especially the philosophers who wrote Scripture, understood there was something ineffable about God—something they couldn’t describe with words, because how do you describe the ground of all being with words? Especially when words are still a fairly new invention?

Today, those of us who believe in the mystery of the universe use scientific terms to refer to God. For us, God is the “fundamental string,” or the “quantum foam” out of which everything is formed. Thinking this way, the rain does accomplish what God desires, because the rain is God, in the same way you and I and the stars and planets are made from the very substance of God. Everything that exists is connected to everything else, and all of it through God.

In many ways, we have as little understanding of this concept as did our ancient forbears who wrote what would eventually be compiled into the Holy Bible. And like them, I hope we never stop imagining and reimaging what God is, how God works, and what that means about our lives and relationships with each other. If God is truly everything, then everything is God. By extension, everyone is a reflection of some aspect of God. So any slight we make against another human being is slighting God. Perhaps remembering that will help us all become more gentle, respectful, and caring emanations of God, the fabric of reality.

Prayer: When I want to do boneheaded things like attack a brother or sister, or deny them basic human rights (like, say, health care), remind me, my compassionate and endlessly giving God, that I am looking in a mirror that always reflects You. Amen.