I Saw God Today…Twice!

It was quite a day. For one thing, here in Philly, the sun was shining and there was a lightness in the air that was almost tangible. Maybe that was just the afterglow of the morning Buddhist meditation I attended, thanks to a friend’s suggestion. But either way, it felt like spring had sprung. Deciding to take a few minutes to enjoy the sunshine after a full day of work I took a detour from my normal routine to walk through the park, and thank GOD, literally, that I did. As I was walking, I overheard a man, who by all conventional standards looks like he could have been straight from the set of a horror movie. I see him often, whenever I am in the park. He is homeless, looks as if he has not bathed in years, and has many large abscesses and growths all over his body. It is a difficult thing to see. But his response to a young man who felt the need to put him down was beautiful.

“You are talking to yourself, not me. You can’t be talking to me, because I am not ugly. I was made in the image of God, and God is not ugly. If you call me ugly, you call God ugly. The only ugly here is you.”

Well said sir, well said. I have noticed that more often than not, our expression of anger, disgust or negativity towards another is really nothing more than a reflection of how we feel; it is our own ugly that we are projecting on others. But just as we can project negativity, we can project positivity and happiness.  By focusing on building our own positive and happy reflection we allow others to do the same. We invite and in fact demand that others do the same, as our positivity expands and becomes infectious.  If we all operated under the assumption that what we see in others is merely a reflection of how we see ourselves, we might spend more time focused on developing our best selves instead of comparing to everyone else.  We would be kind to ourselves, and in turn we could spread that kindness to others. Imagine a world where we focused more on how connected we are in our synergies, as opposed to how different we appear. 

If we are all made in the image of God (whomever your God might be) than we are all, in essence the same. We are human beings looking to give and receive love, compassion and genuine connection.  The rest is just for show.

These thoughts were swirling in my mind while taking a run along the river and as I was rounding the corner toward my apartment, there was a man walking toward me dressed like Jesus. White robe, with the hair and the wooden cane and the whole bit. And just like that, I saw God, twice in one day.  Quite a hump day!