Have a seat. Let's talk.

Whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. --1 Corinthians 6:17

This photo I innocently snapped with my $100 Kodak digital point-n-shoot has garnered many a gasp and dropped jaw from friends-- and even from the tech support guy in India to whom I had to give over remote control of my laptop yesterday. 

It is a powerful image, the way the light and shadows interplay. But let me tell you what I see in it.

Six empty seats. (Five if one guest has a jumbo bum; seven if they scootch.) A perfect, serene setting. Divine light streaming down. So who is in those seats?

I imagined it was a Divinely orchestrated meeting apart from time, an invitation from the One True God, to the many philosophers and theologians over the centuries. Many invitations; six acceptances.

I will leave it up to you to decide who showed up.

But here is what I think happened:

I think, once these great minds all sat down and actually listened to one another, they came to understand that there is, truly, one true God. That perhaps this God has been called by different names-- Yahweh, Elohim, and more-- but at the heart of all creation, in the center of life, lies the one true God. And the very nature of that God is Love.

I think the light streaming in from the left in this shot, clearing away the shadows, is the Almighty's way of making them-- us-- aware. Aware that we may never be able to "see it all." Especially if we remain in the dark.

I think maybe one of those chairs was empty to the human eye, filled only by the Spirit of the Creator. 

And I think maybe, just maybe we need to follow this example, slow down, sit down-- and listen. 

We are so eager to divide. Why not try, instead, to unite?

It is a big, BIG Tent, and a big, BIG Table.  Because we serve a big, B-I-G God.

Almighty God, you take my breath away! You show me but a peep of yourself, and I am awestruck before you. Help me, Lord, to remember that it is not about me, only about you. Let me stop and listen-- to my fellow travellers and especially, to you. And may I remain aware that while you may speak to us in many ways, in many voices-- yet you are still, always, the One True God. Amen.