Paying Attention
Last April and May I spent 6 weeks being sick with Covid and a viral cold that was really nasty. I was in my bed, or sat in my living room chair, or reclined in a chaise outdoors. I was too sick to read or watch TV. So, I just watched. I witnessed the bare trees slowly push out their first buds. I saw the buds soundlessly erupt into vivid colors of pink and yellow and white. Nature was having a party. I was slowed down enough to see it all as it happened. Under more normal circumstances I would have seen a bush or tree in full bloom and I would have mentioned it’s beauty. But I would have missed the whole process of it’s becoming. It was awful being that sick for that long, but I must say I learned something about paying attention. I had nowhere to go, nothing I could do, and everyone was scared to visit me. So I watched and I watched, and I watched. I saw that I was not alone. God was surely in that back yard with me.
Barbara Brown Taylor says in her book “An Altar in the World”, “Earth is so thick with divine presence, it is a wonder that we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars everywhere.”
In Exodus 3 there is a story about Moses who was a runaway murderer. In Egypt he had killed an Egyptian who was beating one of the Jewish slaves. Afraid, he took off to hide and save his life. He ended up working for his father-in-law minding sheep in the hot dusty barren desert. In Egypt he had been a prince. He was a man of privilege and wealth. Now he was stuck in the dirty, hot desert with a bunch of sheep. He had no idea where he was going or what he would do. One day as he walked through the mundane, familiar desert a bush in front of him erupted into a flame. From that bush God spoke to him and told him to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out. Moses took off his shoes knowing he was on holy ground. (If a bush erupting in fire sounds far-fetched to you just remember God inhabits every bush and tree and rock and person and everything you can see. To get our attention sometimes He has to cause a “fire” of some sort. )
There was Moses on the backside of the desert, a murderer, a sheepherder, and God was there. And THERE God reminded him he was not alone.
The fact is that God is everywhere waiting to be perceived. It is He who moves the clouds in the ocean blue sky. It is He who shines out of a new-born baby’s eyes. It is He who pushes the breeze. It is He who greets you with a wag and a lick when your dog is ecstatic to welcome you home. This is a world where God is hiding in plain sight.
In the mornings I often walk in the hills near my house. Sometimes I sort of play the game of “God is here”. I stop to hold a rock or contemplate a bush or tree and I say “You are here”, and, “You are here”. God holds the universe and is the energy that vibrates through it everyday.
The secret to perceiving God’s presence everywhere is slowing down our bodies and our minds. In slowing down we can ponder, and touch, and hold, and really see the things we pass. Or we can can be lost in thought and not even be where we are. To walk contemplatively requires that we perhaps go more slowly so we can notice. And, It requires turning off the endless loops of our thinking.
Can we walk through this earth in all our human experiences knowing God is here and here and here? We can see him in the grocery store, in the office, in the hospital, and in each person we encounter. It’s all there for us to notice if we just pay attention.
To slow down and approach everything with reverence is to see God everywhere. An awareness will settle over us that we are never alone. God is not “up there” somewhere. He is here. He is not just around us in all things He is right here inside of us. To slow down is to stop rushing right past people and things.
When we do this, the world twinkles with meaning. Every person and every living thing is precious to us. Our hearts burn inside us like that bush because we are not alone. We are in an enchanted world with God.