It was the first of October back in 2016, my wife, Robin, and I were driving from Kamloops down to Vancouver to attend the wedding of one of our former students. It was a good day for travel because we would have four hours together on the journey without interruption. We were about twenty minutes down the highway when I began to experience a divine presence. This was not new or even uncommon for me to experience but this particular time the intensity of the Lord’s presence caused me to feel as if I was leaving my body and going somewhere. Well, before I knew it, I found myself at what we would call the Creation. Yes “The Creation”.
I found myself in a state with the Lord and watched as creation unfolded. Before I go any further, I would just like to say that the words I now speak are at best a poor limited expression of what I experienced. Let us continue. As I watched, I could experience the thoughts of God and His love for humanity. This love was an unfolding journey of desire and compassion that was being expressed. It was this expression of thought and desire that caused the universe to manifest. Everything was constructing to support this desire of God. It was as if the more God thought about His love for us, the more the process accelerated.
Now a couple of interesting things took place. Firstly, I watched as this process would start over and repeat itself many times and every time was a fascination in itself. Each time I would experience a new level of desire and compassion for humanity until I found that my desire was His desire, and my compassion was His compassion. Now the picture transitioned from God’s thoughts creating everything to my thoughts creating everything. It was now my love and desire for humanity that was creating the universe and as this desire grew and evolved, so did the acceleration of the creating process.
Now here is a question some of you might be asking. Who was driving the car? Well, it was I who was driving and according to my wife, I had one hand lifted up and was in a gazed frozen stare for about half an hour. What she found amazing is that though I was somewhere else, my body still drove the car along the highway, through the mountains with ease (but that is another story).
I will confess to you that this experience, as powerful as it was, did not make a lot of sense to me. It did not fit into the theological mold of my understanding of creation. Saying that, I am reminded of the phrase that comes to me often. “Be faithful to what you know and open to what you don’t”. This idea has helped me often over the decades. My journey has been that of discovery. To discover the mysteries of God, or the things which I yet see though they have always been.
This experience has helped to open me to the understanding of seeing things through the eyes of a process rather than the eyes of an event. We in western Greco-Roman culture tend to view life as a series of events rather than an unfolding process. The problem here is an underlining of separation and isolating of events so that they stand on their own. This view can often limit our ability to see the correlation between so-called events and how these events pertain to us. Why is this so important? Well, firstly the static view of the event is in contrast to that of ancient Hebraic thought. This Hebraic thought is in dynamic form of an unfolding journey. Let me try to explain:
We in the west tend to see God as a static being with persona, yet God’s name is that of dynamic becoming. The YHWH which we would pronounce as Yahweh or even Jehovah in the west would be seen as God’s static name or label. In Hebrew the יהוה is described as a continual becoming, a continual unfolding or revealing. Names in Hebrew often describe an action or purpose. Another example is Jesus (Liberator, Deliverer, Savior), which describes the dynamic purpose of the Christ here in the earth. The life of Jesus was an unfolding process of liberation being released on humanity and if we look a little closer, we can see that purpose unfold in everything that Jesus said and did.
Back to creation. In Genesis 1:1 we would read “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The problem here lies not in what is said but the lens in which we look through. The verse says far more than we in the west see. Let me explain. The phrase “In the beginning” in Hebrew is “in beginning”, in Hebrew thought, beginning is not the start of something but the source of something, you could say “where it came from”. So, what happened at the source? Well, for the sake of not getting laborious with you with Hebraic language definition, let me just spill it out. “In her womb (matrix) the powers fattened”. The picture depicted here is one of union between the masculine and the feminine. This unity is a love expression which is the power behind all that is created. The phrase “For God so loved” is the foundation of purpose, it is the desire that motivates the creation process. What am I saying? If we look around us, we can see the beauty in the process of creativity, all creativity is an expression of the love of God. Unfortunately, creativity is not always used to express that love but even behind the distorted expression is the love heart of God. Here is an extreme example: A man rapes a woman, and she becomes pregnant. The sexual violent act is a distorted expression (distorted: the Hebrew word ra, meaning evil) of that which is beautiful. Now, even though the act was not in love, we could even say an evil act, the creative process behind it is an expression of love (a child). Every child is an expression of the creativity of God and is an expression of His love.
Let us take this a step further. Creativity is an expression of the process of something that is not seen unto its revealing. It can be a thought in our mind (womb) that will process over time until it is ready to be expressed (birthed). This birthing is an expression of the love of God. Within every human is the God given ability to create, to take the unknown and allow it to process until the appointed time of its revealing. Again, God’s name is “The Continual Becoming, the Continual Revealing”, the process of life that is expressed in love.
In Matthew 7:7 we read “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Why is it that we are often afraid of asking the tough questions? Why do we limit our seeking to the parameters of that which is known? Why are we afraid to knock on a door where others won’t knock? Could the answer lie in the power of conformity, the fear of not fitting within the group? Could it even be the fear of rejection from our peers? Whatever the reason is, the answer is found in our own desire and compassion. How hungry are we for the reality of God in our lives? Is our God experience one of conforming to a set of rules or is it based on a living reality that keeps unfolding?
Desire and compassion are a mighty force that can drive people forward into the unknown with the purpose of discovering that which is not yet revealed. I only say this because this has been my life. Something inside of me, drives me forward into the unknown where the creativity of God occurs, where I can experience for myself the love that God has for me, and how that love can be expressed through my life. I don’t know about you but as for me, I will no longer limit my relationship with God based on what others think of me. I will allow my desires and compassion to drive me forward into His arms through the doorway of the unknown, beyond what the eyes can see and where faith and love become one. Therefore, let us ask the questions, let us seek out the unknown, let us knock at the forbidden doors. In doing this we may just discover the creativity, the unfolding expression of the love of God.
Leave a Reply