“The journey continues. Another blackboard. Another piece of chalk. And the thought that Love is not enough. My biggest hugest bestest Love will always be too small for God. The Love of God is just way too big for my little brain.” [Paulfg, “Shouldn’t discipling be beautiful?“]
Paul put his finger on a spot that “itched” my whole life long. One of those things you want to scratch, you want to satisfy, for years and years and seem like you can never quite reach.
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” [John 17]
But HOW? How do *I*… little, finite, human, not-too-bright… *I*… ever expect or hope to KNOW GOD? Are we KIDDING? And yet, this is “eternal life”, that we know is what Jesus came to bring us. Jesus is not a liar. He is not crazy. He does not “wax poetic” or exaggerate in an excess of hyperbole and passion. He means, and meant, what He said.
So… this bothered me… a lot… for a really long time… like 50 years or so.
But then, one day, Jesus fixed this. Well, Jesus, and Our Father, and the Holy Spirit fixed this. So I thought I may as well put it down here, that perhaps others draw something from this. Also, to thank Paul for effectively expressing the “question” well enough to allow me to pose one expression of an “answer”.
28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire. [Hebrews 12]
Imagine, for just one moment, that you stood in front of God, and everything was fine, friendly, loving, relaxed… just fine. But, for some reason, He appears in the form of a vast, incredible Fire! Not just physically large, but magnificent. Now, suppose you stood before Him, in His image, your own childlike size, but you were also fire. The Holy Spirit not only blazed IN you, but THROUGH you, such that (if you can imagine this), you yourself were a “person of fire” (maybe picture Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4, if this helps?)
And all you can see… all around you… is just the Void… and you… and Magnificent God. And He is HUGE. Beyond huge, He is infinite… and you… are NOT. You, are just, you.
Now, suppose He stretches forth His hand, His finger, towards you… and says, in His gentlest voice, “Touch Me!”
And you don’t really know what to do. This is confusing. But He is quiet, He is smiling. He encourages you, saying, “Just stretch out your finger, and touch it to My finger.”
So you do that, you stretch out your finger towards Him and His. And you can feel the warmth of Him, the love of Him, and they are overwhelming. But you feel the warmth of you, the love of you, and you know this will not be painful, but you can’t conceive of what it WILL be. Nonetheless, you stretch forth your finger, watching as they slowly come together.
And then, there is but One. One fire. Like a match flame touched to a bonfire… where does the match flame go? The two are merged into One, but where does one begin and the Other end? Where are the boundaries when two flames merge?
There are no thoughts anymore, no boundaries, no questions, no answers, no ideas, no fears. There is only… the One… as the two have become One. You in Him, Him in you, no lines, no boundaries.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Later, can you describe that? Did you “contain” that? Did you “comprehend” that? Can you even meaningfully EXPRESS that? Um… no.
And yet, there it was. It happened. And you will never be the same. And you will never again worry about “containing” the Infinite. Because you will realize, when you ENTER the infinite… “containment” no longer has any meaning at all.
Yes, you always take that Flame back with you… and you will never worry about “how will this fit?” again.
Grace to thee — Little Monk
The Postmodern Mystic 
paulfg
January 29, 2014 at 12:44 AM
And that is … simple … beautiful! And for the very first time, I had a glimpse of something Even Bigger than that! Even infinter than that. Every single one of us. Each and every one of us – past present future. Together. Not needing “to know”. Those not knowing? He has already reached out. And if they ever just turn around …
I see a lot facing away. I see a lot. Man that is sad! They are sad. And some are convinced they are looking the right way. Trying to turn others around to look the same way as them. Not evil. Just trying to make “it fit”.
WOW! I think I may have just turned around. And now I can spin a little. Now I can look around and back and sideways. wow. Thank you!!
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Little Monk
January 29, 2014 at 12:47 AM
The Infinite can be scary. Without Him, it certainly is. But then again, it can also be incredibly rich… and even… fun. Cheers & grace! — LM
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Don Merritt
January 29, 2014 at 6:51 AM
Fire! Yes, that’s it… fire! He is fire, and He’s fire in us. Hard to tell where the one ends and the other begins, just fire, light, power, energy… to build up His Kingdom!
Brilliant, LM, brilliant!
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fairyneedle
March 7, 2014 at 1:15 PM
This is absolutely beautiful! It reminds me of a beloved old Jesus freak tune from the 70s: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing; That’s how it is with God’s Love, Once you’ve experienced it, you spread His Love to everyone! You want to pass it on!” There’s more to the song, but I used to love how in the simplicity of those gatherings we would sing this and light candles one to another to remind ourselves that when we left our prayer circles we entered the mission fields. I have never lost that fire for loving everyone I meet to Jesus, if they are open and willing. It will be fifty years since He blazed into my life this summer! I’ve never been the same!
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Little Monk
March 7, 2014 at 2:49 PM
Thank you. What a lovely thing to share. It seems God often uses “fire” to represent Himself, lots of scriptural examples. But the moment spoken of above, that moment where the “self” is seen as “small/finite fire”… that touches (and is touched by) Infinite Fire… THAT moment was the dawning of an understanding for me of “you in Me, and I in you, and together We in the Father.”
Those words, semantically, had just never made “sense” to me. They had no “logical referent” for my brain, (And I KNOW I’m not alone in this confusion!)
But after this, after seeing this, after hearing God ask me… “Where’s the boundaries now? Where do you begin, and *I* end?”
Now, I understood. I could “see” the truth of that. I didn’t “comprehend” it… I could not “define” it… but nonetheless I could “see” it clearly. NO boundaries. Not just that I could not “discern” them, but that, rather, they did NOT EXIST. The “Flame” has no mass or boundaries. Its fuel may, or its products may…. gas, ash, carbon… all that. But the Flame itself? The Incandescence? No. You cannot “parse fire”… can’t be done.
You recall to our minds the image of each person’s candle. Yes.
You call to mind all of those candles, lighting one another. Yes.
Now, extend to each of those flames entering “Consuming Fire”… and retaining their identity, while melding totally into Him without boundaries or limits.
I’ve never been the same since…
Grace — LM
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