Thoughts On God - Sunday, February 12, 2012

Last night, awoke in bed, I was fretting that I would again draw a blank when it came time for me to write a Sunday piece my thoughts on God. The fret did me no good, nor watching ETWN, nor reading Dante's Divine Comedy, nor reading Francis of Assisi nor praying. I continued to draw a blank.

So I am sitting down in my apartment in San Francisco pouring myself a second glass of red (light to medium-bodied 2008 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, a decent table wine from Costco) and my inspiration seems to be arriving. It came in part from just having completed ordering a photography book from Pavel Filatov, “Altai: A Journey Through The Siberian Wilderness,” and in part from being in a mild inebriated state.

Last year I visited St. Petersburg and Moscow but not Siberia, which is where Pavel and Elena Filatov are located. It must be a cold place in February even when they are having the finest Beluga caviar with the world's smoothest vodka; even if they are not, I imagine it to be a warm place where there are few distractions except for the beauty of nature in the wilderness nearby, and the relatively small number of people who live there (compared to India and China), who know them, who care about them and I suppose, who love them dearly. Perhaps they are among some of the lucky ones to be born there, to become accustomed to the climate, to breathe the breath of life while living the gift of being surrounded by fresh air, clean water and the grandness of natural simplicity.

I imagine that the distance between God and man is farther away when man is immersed in his unending quest for knowledge, however imperfect and misunderstood are his finds, and when he continuously thirsts for control of his environment, wrestling it to submission, however clueless he is as to its consequences, but that the distance between God and man is closer when man shares in God's vision of heaven on earth, when he is in harmony with the beauty of that vision which suspends his breath in mid-air and his soul midway to heaven.

In this suspended state, man is imperturbable, rendering his surround and the events surrounding his life irrelevant, desiring the inner peace that brings joy and complete fulfillment that only God can give, and to offer to God his most treasured possession - his entire being, to be re-united with his Maker.