Divine Reflections in Living Things

While we may understand God as being transcendent as well as his attributes manifesting through the person of Jesus Christ, another aspect of the Divine may be escaping us. The Scriptures reveal that God is also immanent through His attributes and that this aspect of Divinity is all around us - "He is not far from each one of us. 'For in him [His attributes] we live and move and have our being.'" (Acts 17:27-28).

It's possible for us to be like the blind men that Jesus encountered on his travels - but worse still, not even realize that we are blind or missing anything. Unknowingly, we may be oblivious to the divine realities surrounding us. Just as countless camouflaged living creatures cross our paths but totally escape our attention, there is camouflaged divinity in every nook and cranny of the created order. Living things - both plants and animals - can teach us much about life, as well as giving us insights into present and future spiritual realities.

This book proposes, like its companion volumes Divine Reflections in Times and Seasons and Divine Reflections in Natural Phenomena, that the Divine can be glimpsed in ordinary experiences - and that indeed all of life is sacred and as such teaches us about and brings us closer to God. In other words, an immanent aspect of the Divine pervades all living things, enabling us to see traces of the transcendent reality. A consciousness of the Creator's presence in the seemingly mundane will help us recognize divine qualities reflected in the creation.

Like the blind men in the Scriptures, of and by ourselves we are often unable to see the camouflaged divinity. We may well need to have our eyes opened and the divine brought to light. Then, with a desire to see and know, by looking deeper below and beyond the surface of the seemingly mundane, we will be able to glimpse the divine presence. Something as ordinary as the household cat, birds nesting in the backyard tree, or a flower bed with butterflies hovering over it - these, as well as myriads of other things around us, will enable us to discern or spot signs of the divine mystery.

This closer and deeper looking at life will also allow us to perceive the unity and interconnection ("inter-being") of all things. Everything is interrelated and interdependent, as well as containing all else - animals depend on plants for oxygen and sometimes for food, plants need insects for pollination and thus species preservation, and all life needs and contains energy from the sun and water from the clouds for survival.

As we become open to new possibilities of seeing and begin to interpret our experiences in fresh ways, the ordinary transforms itself into the extraordinary and the previously unnoticed becomes a source of marvel!