A Walk and a Listen

The photo above is a view on a walk I often take. That is the Lafayette Reservoir nestling in golden California hills. In spring, they are dotted with the lavender of lupine bushes; in summer we see yellow-orange monkey-flower coloring the hills. Always these walks are prayer times. I like to just listen to what God is saying as I walk (not always easy, but a great discipline!) I often think of seven synonyms for God, and what they mean: Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Mind. I ponder how man is the very expression of these God-names. For instance, as the expression of Love, man is loved, loving, and lovable. As the representative of Truth, man is pure, upright, whole, accurate, honest. As the image of Soul, man (and woman, of course!) is balanced, beautiful, harmonious. Man, as the likeness of Spirit, is spiritual! Substantial. Inspired. As the very idea of Principle, man is designed and governed by divine law, with his entire experience subject to the operation of Principle. As Mind’s representative, man is intelligent, conscious, alert. As Life’s manifestation, man is good, healthy, intact, divinely maintained. I find the basis for these ideas in Genesis 1: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:…and God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

I love remembering this altogether good man is inseparable from his altogether good source: Love itself. Nothing can come in to change that. This perfect defense is beautifully summed up in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Enjoy your next walk!