I Believe in All That Is, Seen and Unseen.

“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.