Likely Places

Last updated on: December 26, 2010 at 11:15 am by Marc

Likely Places 2010-12-26T11:15:00-05:00 Marc

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Blogs are stupid, mostly because of this:

But also because of the word blog. It just sounds immature. The worst subtitle for a blog, ever, ever, ever would be as follows: Random Musings on Finding God in Unlikely Places. I will mock the crap out of that blog if I ever find it.

Anyways, my point is – though like most of my points, it comes a little late – that many Christians have a habit of expressing the desire to find God in unlikely places, and I think it is a little silly. So silly, in fact, that I’d like to spin the whole business around a little, if you might follow me through a few poorly formed sentences. It’s cute at it’s best, to be sure, conjuring up images of my younger, fatter self looking under a gutter for a toad to catch and running into Jesus. “Surprise!” He yells, offering me a piece of cake. “You didn’t expect me here, did you?”

But since the Incarnation, the unlikely has become the likely, the small the large, and the simple; the sublime. How unlikely was the child born for us, how small, how weak the babe that saved the world. How small and insignificant are the bread and wine that now becomes the Eternal God. How pathetic our emotions, our own personalities and our own selves, how worthless in the view of this massive universe, and yet it is here where God meets us; our very selves have become the battleground for heaven and hell, and St. Michael the Archangel fights for our salvation. And the things that used to seem so big, so important, so very likely; death, suffering, the future; suddenly they aren’t a big deal. Death has lost it’s sting, suffering is useful, and the future isn’t where we’re supposed to live. The Incarnation turned the world upside down. Remember?

A while ago, a reader wrote (yo pagan):

“I was wondering about how God is seen as “omnipresent and eternal.” If God is not limited by the metric of space-time, then how can you even say God is omnipresent or eternal? Isn’t God, rather, totally beyond such considerations and therefore neither transient-nor-eternal, and neither confined-nor-omnipresent?”

Which is a fantastic question, if you can wrap your head around it. I don’t know the Church’s official answer, though I am sure it is awesome and very Latin, but here’s what I think: The idea of God’s omnipresence makes no sense without the Incarnation. If there was no Christmas, God’s presence may have – logically speaking – remained unable to understand. But God becomes a part of the universe in the person Jesus Christ; an infinite being in a finite space. Thus the finite space is filled to overflowing with His presence; how could it be anything but? Thus it is that the eternal God is both outside of time and in it, both matter and the Creator of matter, both the natural and the supernatural, and the child’s proclamation is vindicated, “God is everywhere!” Which brings me back to The Point. If God is everywhere, there really are no unlikely places. And one day we may very well be held accountable for all the times we have neglected to wake up and say, “Surely I will find God in my coffee today.”

Keep breathing Church incense my friends, and Merry Christmas! And Happy Feast of the Holy Family! If you haven’t seen this yet, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWq60oyrHVQ?fs=1

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