Looking Through

Larry said, "You have to look through the bush to see the animals".  We were trying out best but didn't quite have the soft eyes to see what he seemed to see so easily.  Slowly we got it as we relaxed and looked through the bush. A time or two we even spotted a elephant or giraffe before Larry did.  Given the size of those two creatures that's not saying much.  Larry was probably looking with more zen-like countenance for the more elusive cheetah.

Looking through the bush is a great metaphor for trying to see that place where the secular meet the sacred or said in another way trying to see Jesus or God in everyday experiences.  Some people will tell you they saw the face of Jesus in a whole wheat pancake, the eyes bright blueberry and the lips outlined by a pancake crease.  I don't doubt it.   It's never happened to me although I'll admit longing for that one moment when he appears in the toast or on the fogged up bathroom mirror.

I have spotted Jesus or God on the horns of a dilemma.  Usually, if I relax and soften, I find that sacred experience between the poles of what I should do or not do, what is best and what may be better.  It's as if I need to stop looking for God in the rightness and realize that God is through the bush.

In the wild the animals are always there.  We may not see them but they are there.  In the wildness and wilderness of our life so it is with God.