FINDING GOD

STARING AT THE WALLPAPER

The kitchen of our second house had a busy wallpaper.  If memories of it forty years ago are correct, it had a yellowish background liberally adorned with smallish nondescript flowers and foliage.  But colors of pale flowers were predominate and smaller contrasting splotches of red and a few other colors were scattered in no obvious pattern.

Staring at the widely spaced red marks it soon became apparent that they were in a geometric arrangement, perhaps a foot apart, of vertical, horizontal and diagonal rows.  After a few months of repeating the observation, probably accompanied by coffee and cookie treats, I made what to me was a remarkable discovery.

In my amazement at how the red stood out, although it was the most vividly colored mark, I may have wondered if I could find other colors in the same pattern.  Because when I looked for blue, and subsequently green and other, color patterns, the red pattern disappeared.  Each color became my focus, however I desired, and became easy to see and all, not surprisingly, conformed to the patterns previously noted for the reds.

CONSCIOUS SEARCHES

The mind is a remarkable thing.  You don't have to do much other than think about what you want to find and you often soon find it if it is there.  If I have a word in mind I can often find it quickly on a page, a list, or a jumble.  Scanning lists of people's names, in alumni publications or other listings, can be done quite rapidly to find those you know without even thinking or looking for their particular name.

If the world is our wallpaper we can enjoy a trip through endless landscapes more enjoyably if we, like Darwin, learn to observe the rock formations, hills, streams, plants, and animals while looking for or noticing relationships of one to the others.

Searching people, friends and others, we can usually find what we are looking for in them, either good or bad.  A bad experience with them early tends to make us notice the bad.  Likewise, a good first experience tends to make us notice the good later.  The repetition can confirm the original view because we may have become blind to the other view.

FINDING GOD

God is not hiding.  Old Testament writers found him in a gentle breeze or a burning bush.  In the New Testament he variously appears as a dove, tongues of fire, and as Jesus Christ.  To us, God can be seen in his works, not as blotches on the wallpaper, but in everything good that he created.  For us, the challenge is to program our search engine to look for the good in everyone.  You can also look for one, eternal, all-powerful God's works at night when the light from the sun, reflected off the moon, took only a few minutes to reach us; the light from the nearest star, a year or so to reach us; and light from the farthest stars, uncountable years to reach us.

Alternatively, follow your conscience and as you become aware of the things God does for you, you will find God in your own experiences more convincing evidence than you could get from me telling you of my experiences.

Joseph G. Engemann      May 17, 2014