“To God: How did you get invented?”
There’s a charming article in today’s Times by Alex Renton, a
non-believer who sends his six-year-old daughter Lulu to a Scottish
church primary school.
Her teachers asked her to write the following
letter: “To God, How did you get invented?”
The Rentons were taken
aback: “We had no idea that a state primary affiliated with a church
would do quite so much God,” says her father. He could have told Lulu
that, in his opinion, there was no God; or he could have pretended that
he was a believer.
He chose to do neither, instead emailing her letter
to the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (ditto)
and the Scottish Catholics (a nice but theologically complex answer).
For good measure, he also sent it to “The head of theology of the
Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the
response:
Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers.
It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
"Dear Lulu,
Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me
and were quite surprised.
They discovered me when they looked round at
the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and
wondered where it came from.
They discovered me when they were very very
quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t
expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of
them not very sensible.
From time to time I sent them some hints –
specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m
really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me.
Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up
the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who
could ask me awkward questions..!"
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And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.
-Archbishop Rowan
I think this letter reveals a lot about the Archbishop of
Canterbury’s sort of theology.
What the letter also tells us is that the Archbishop took the
trouble to write a really thoughtful message – unmistakably his work and
not that of a secretary – to a little girl.
“Well done, Rowan!” was the
reaction of Alex Renton’s mother, and I agree.
source : Paulo Coelho's Blog
***** ******* *********** ***** *******
A wonderful story. I have already read some time ago. It reminds me
of another story. A good friend sent me. Unfortunately, I do not know
the author ..
Lunch with God
A little boy wanted to meet God. He grabbed some cans of coke and
chocolate bars in his rucksack and set out on the road. In a park, he
saw an old woman sitting on a bench and watched the pigeons.
The boy sat down beside her and opened his backpack. When he wanted to
get a Coke, he saw the hungry look in his neighbor. He took out a
chocolate bar and gave it to the woman. Thankfully, she smiled at him – a
wonderful smile...! To see that smile again offered her the boy drink a
coke. She took it and smiled again, more radiant than before. So the two
sat in the park all afternoon, ate candy bars and drinking Coke.
They
spoke not a word. As it grew dark, the boy wanted to go home. After a
few steps he stopped, walked back and hugged the woman. The gave him for
her very best smile.
"What have you done today for beautiful, that you look so happy ": At
home, he was asked by his mother.
The boy replied: "I have eaten lunch with God
– and she has a wonderful smile..! "
The old woman had gone home where, her son asked her why she looked so
happy.
And the old woman replied: "I have eaten lunch with God – and he is much
younger than I thought."
I wish you all a wonderful day.
http://youtu.be/x8b8v3CoLoY
Who Is God?
God is One. God is love. God is you. God is Me. God is
the infinite intelligence that pervades all reality. God is the voice
that whispers the truth in your heart. God is the eternal mother of
10,000 things. God is the unmanifested father of all eternity.
God
is the sun that holds the planets with invisible force. God is the moon
that pulls all the oceans into tides and flow. God is all the heavenly
bodies that influence our body chemistry. God is the dancing electron at
the heart of every body.
Who is God? God is You. God is me.
God is everyone and every body. God is the tiger who kills the deer,
God is the deer who nourishes the tiger. God is the grass that feeds the
deer. God is the tiger who dies into the earth to nourish the grass.
God is all that your eyes can see. God is all that your heart can feel.
God is the all around you. God is inside of you.
If you want to
see God, look into the eyes of another human being. If you want to hear
God, listen to the voice of the birds. If you want to touch God, touch
someone you deeply love, someone you are willing to die for because
their happiness is your happiness, if you touch that person, you will
have touched God. If you want to feel God, feel your deepest driving
desires. It is God speaking through you, asking you to take a step
forward towards your personal destiny.
When you are lonely, know
that God is inside of you, feeling your loneliness. When you are
helpless, know that God is inside of you feeling your helplessness. When
you cry out for help looking up in the sky, know that God is saying
"but I AM YOU, I am inside of you, all you need to do is trust your
self, you have the powers right there, all you need to do is believe in
it". When you say "God show me your presence", God comes to you in
10,000 bodies talking to you directly, but most of the time we are busy
looking at somewhere else hoping god would say something.
Who is God? God
is You. God is me. God is your lover. God is your enemy. God is the
father that holds all the universes. God is the mother who manifests in
10,000 things. God is everyone, god is everything. God is all around.
That is why god is invisible. Because God... IS!
~Shafin de Zane
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~gauresh~
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