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However, this shared restlessness, shared seeking, and shared prostration between God and us may be an eternal act. If it is not completed for us, it will not be so for God. The nature of relationship is shared experience at a subjective level, and some measure of incompletion is, as far as we know, essential to it, as well as perpetual and infinite growth.
Is it possible the All-Potent made us for a complete response of love, only to wonder whether we will ever return it? Or, rather, is God content with perpetual growth into deeper, fuller expressions of love through a process innate in endlessness? If the All-Potent is Infinity and the universes have the potential--arising from the All-Potent--for infinite Love being reciprocated to the Infinite, can we assume that we will someday, somewhere attain a final, competed state of response to the Inbreathing of God God's Self? And is not our every longing for more love itself God longing for return to God in love among us, so that in All-Love we might more completely love, bringing honor and joy to God whose loving participates in our returned loving, even when returned through our love of something or someone in creation? Will our growth into love and through Love never end, extending forever in the Eternal, who encompasses progression, unfolding finitely in the infinity of Infinity?
The image of the Eternal One, outside time, entering time and bending over Adam to give breath impresses me beyond words with the beauty, love, and the Grace of my God. I do not know the answer to the questions of Mystery; I rejoice to know Mystery.
How has this All-Potency prostrated to give blessing to you through this brief span on earth? Do you see Amazing Grace? Do you see how the Holy Spirit outreaches gracefully to you, breathing into you, every day and night?
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These questions you might ask yourself. Answers to them might remind of Grace and cheer up in Faith. They might open to be more sensitive to the Wonderful and Awesome Presence in the world we share as blessing.
Finally, these considerations remind me that knowing the answers to the questions of faith are not the primary response to God. The primary replies are loving gratitude and thankful faithfulness. Adoration is the natural response to the Spirit of Grace. To adore God for one moment is of more value than answers to all the questions religion raises for us.
Prayer
Spirit of Life, breathe upon me, breathe into me, breathe through me, that I may be a fragrant offering to You, My Life and My Love. Through the Blessed Holy Spirit and to the Honor of Christ, My Brother and Your Son. Amen.
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian seeks to integrate the best of the contemplative teachings of Christianity East and West, from the patristic Church to the present. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
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