Called to Recognize the Divine in Everything
Born in a manger… in a stable …with parents of low station…first visited by the shepherds. Jesus had an unremarkable birth, hardly worth mentioning, until the Wise Men traveled from far away in the East to see what the glowing star heralded. Our attention is now piqued, even Herod wanted to capture the child who would rule the world(in Herod’s view—a threat to him). We approach the stable, out of curiosity, drawn by the light, by the promise of we-don’t-know-what, by the new-born infant, untouched by the ways of the world—the purity, the innocence, the promise of a new life.
The precious innocent, the divine child, is born into our midst every year. That he’s born again into our world we take for fact, but the real experience of the Christmas morn is the birth in us of the Divine. Will we recognize it? Will we nurture it? Protect it? Or will it be born and then wither away from neglect when we fail to see the divine potential in us, in the world around us, in other people, in creation itself. How are you year in and year out with the Divine? Are you seeking it? Recognizing it? Embracing it? Nurturing it? Have you seen the seed of the Divine born in you and paid attention and watched your attention go more and more to God/Christ/Spirit? Are you one of the very fortunate who knows and grows the Divine seed within?
The Christ Child was born into this very material place, into the repression and ignorance and power-struggles and egocentricity. He was born into the world of the false self, but lived the life of the true self. We have the choice of living in the false-self world or of living in the land of the true self, the Divine Kingdom, that is here, there and everywhere, but unseen, unnoticed by the eyes of the false self. The major task of our lives if we are to see the Divine Child being born in us and in our world is to train our eyes, our ears, yes, all our senses to the Divine One: to be able to recognize the Divine in every activity and word, in the moments of our lives, in the people we encounter, in the books we read, in the created world in which we live, in the work we do—this is how we have to live if we are to live from the true self.
Remember to look for the unheralded, the insignificant, the lowly, the little child. See beyond the surface, the clothes, the pain, the culture’s standards. Look into the eyes deeply of everyone you meet. Bring to consciousness all the cues you register in another person—the tension, the sadness, the distractedness, the joy, the break-through—what we usually notice sub- or unconsciously. Ask the other person about what you notice under the surface, have a deeper encounter, touch the Divine, be with the person that is, not who they are trying to project. Dig deep into your life and into others’ to see the Divine in them and in yourself, beyond the superficial, to the depth of your soul/their soul.
It is in the Divine that all the richness of life lies—in the deep connectedness of two human beings; in seeing the real person beyond the mask; in unmasking ourselves so that our true light will shine through. It’s in the depths, below the surface, in the unexpected, previously unknown that the Divine arises. And what you see in others you will see in yourself. We were all created in God’s image! Can you grasp that? Can you feel that? Can you be who you were created to be?