“We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.” – Nicene Creed
In light of yesterday’s Ham-Nye debate, I offer a personal story.
I grind my teeth at night. To prevent damage, I wear a bite-guard
– similar to a retainer. Last night, after brushing my teeth, I realized I had
not returned it to the proper place. It was missing. I searched the house,
every room, long and hard. I prayed the St. Anthony prayer. No avail. I slept
poorly without a bite-guard and woke up with a headache.
This morning, I woke up early, determined to find it. I tore the house
apart – high and low, room to room. I moved couch cushions and emptied drawers.
I even began to sweep! Finally, I gave up.
A bit of background: We are the second owners of a house built in the
late 50’s. Prior to our living here, the previous owner, Miriam, died in the
house. I never knew her, but since the day we moved in I have felt her presence
in this house. She is kind and loving, and a bit set in her ways. We know that
she was an excellent house keeper, so she is always both intimidating and pushing
me to clean. My husband thinks I am crazy.
This morning, as I was giving up, I had a conversation with Miriam. It
went something like this… “Miriam, I love your house. I know I am not a good
house keeper, but we do the best to keep it as clean as we can. We are having a
great time here. I am missing a bite-guard and I have looked everywhere. I’ve
been through every room. As soon as I got up this morning, I sifted through a
beer soaked recycle bin (which should have given you a good laugh). I’m about
to go through the trash. The trash is really gross because we had a Super Bowl
party the other night. If you are to blame for this, I am starting to get mad
at you. So, you can laugh at me while I am going through the trash, or you can
help me out.” I took one last look around the house and then dug out the
trash.
I dug through the first layer of yesterday’s vegetable peels, through
the second layer of beer soaked party napkins and down to the third layer of
old coffee grinds. FYI, two-day old coffee grinds are REALLY disgusting. Half way through the bag and hands covered in
grinds, I said, “Miriam, seriously, this is gross.” On my next handful of
coffee grinds, my eye caught my bite guard
to the right! Safe outside the
trash, half-way visible in a fold of a towel on our kitchen towel rack.
I’m not advocating for white Casper-like spirits. I do not know if Miriam and I had a connection this morning or not, but I have worked in the
church far too long to rule out things unseen. I have listened to too many
first count experiences of dreams, visions, conversations and coincidences with parishioners’ friends and
family who they love but see no longer. I too, have had my own experiences,
beyond Miraim , of dreams and visions of those who are no longer with us in
living, physical form. I don’t know how
the afterlife is real, or what it looks like, but I know it exists.
I must confess, I did not spend time watching the entire 2.5 hour
Nye-Ham debate. I don’t know that I will
ever give it 150 minutes of my life. But I have been on social media and CNN enough
this morning to realize that Nye’s arguments for creation sound a lot more like
my faith than Ham’s. There is extreme beauty within the mystery of earth’s
formation. Not knowing how atoms were
formed or how they came into being, resonates with my belief in God as
beautiful and mysterious creator, of whom, I would like to more about but of
who I will never know completely how or why. Not needing to have a step by step
explanation for how consciousness was transferred into matter, gives my heart
room to wonder. If we do not know how consciousness is held within matter, is
there consciousness outside of matter? Could there be? Could that be God? Could God’s consciousness somehow be
transferable and inside me? I sure hope so! Could consciousness somehow change
the physical matter of plain bread into something sacred and beyond ourselves?
There are many things I do not understand, yet they exist. I don’t
fully understand how this computer works, but I trust it. I certainly do not understand how this blog is transferred to you by 1's and 0's, but you are reading. I do not fully
understand how my car works, but I drive it. I don't remember the chemical reaction for yeast. I do not fully understand how my
body keeps breathing, but it does. And for all of the cars, computers, and
hearts there are millions more things beyond me that I cannot see, do not understand and have never experienced. And I believe that computers, cars, heartbeats and interwebs are just a tiny spec of the iceberg on adventures into the unseen.
Big and small, I put my trust in mysteries
every day. I believe in big mysteries. I believe in Bill. I believe in the unseen.
