A Pondering - “In Your Eyes”
Posted By BParker on March 11, 2009
A friend recently told me that he thinks God shows up after one dies in whatever form will bring the most comfort to the individual soul. If you are a Christian, God will come for you in the form of Jesus. If you are a Buddhist, God will appear as the Buddha. If you are an atheist, God will flood your heart, soul, and mind with the love, truth, and meaning that you longed for so fiercely in the world.
If you deeply loved someone who has died - and heaven could only mean reconciliation with that person - then God will come for you as that individual. A musician would be welcomed by magnificent music, the artist by beauty, and the poet by sublime lyrics. It makes a certain intuitive sense that, according to the limits of our own perception, we will see what is real in different ways. Here on earth, human beings often perceive truth and reality in their own idiosyncratic ways.
I am rather drawn to Dan Ladinsky’s translation of a poem by Hafiz about seeing God. The poet wrote that when God wants to make God’s presence known on earth, God makes God’s appearance in the “love and playfulness in your eyes.”
Your eyes? My eyes? Is it possible that sometimes we are not even aware that we are bearing witness to a power greater than ourselves? When we love one another, when we have enough trust and gladness, we are often playful. Light-heartedness, enthusiasm, and animated exuberance are so powerful that they allow us to see God in each other; which is, I think, what happens around this table Thursday after Thursday.
Some look for God in temples, rituals, and scripture. Some find the holy in a sunset or in an autumn leaf. But the greatest reassurance I have experienced is when God takes human form; as in the life and teachings of Jesus for me and for many here I am sure. God is made real in the human eyes that bless us with their love and laughter. The way we look at one another has the power to make God’s presence known on earth.
(bcp)
