God is in the details

Some details of spring

“God is in the details.” This saying is attributed to German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

It isn’t hard to see how an architect, so attentive to visual details, might find God’s hand behind the harmony, beauty, and function in a bridge , a building, or house design.

I find God in the details of my day too. Pretty much in proportion as I let God be central to my activities, thoughts, and conversations, all sorts of interesting things happen.

Among my acquaintances, for example, I’m making the opportunity to look deeper into the spiritual qualities they express, and finding beyond the surface good and dear people, people I really like.

One new friend is a fierce animal lover, a staunch NRA advocate, and is taking a course in belly-dancing at a local university. She recently tenderly cared for an elderly uncle who had no other family, until he passed on.

Another is active in her church, generously sews many costumes for her daughter’s high school musical productions, hauls the girls to their swim meets, and finds time for tennis.

In spite of their different life styles, each of these ladies is pursuing her own spiritual journey. God is working in the details of their lives because somehow, in some way, each has invited Him/Her into their hearts.

People on spiritual journeys tune in to the substance of things that cannot be seen, eternal truths they innately believe. They have not given up on the basic goodness of mankind and the basic premise of a Higher Power.

People on spiritual journeys tend to discover God’s goodness or beauty or strength in the details of their lives.

Photo: thanks to Gordon Imrie

Finding the beauty underneath

Mars' Hill, as it looks today,
where Paul spoke to the Athenians

While waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him in Athens, Paul explored the city. He was impressed by statues everywhere to Greek gods and goddesses.

When he decided to speak to the Athenians, he addressed them from a high spot called Mars' Hill. There he commented on how scrupulously religious they were. They were so careful to include every god that they even created an idol to the unknown god - just so none would be left out. The King James version of Paul's words, "ye are in all things too superstitious," sounds like a put-down. But actually Paul was complimenting them. A more accurate translation would be, "You are in every way very religious."

When in Athens a few weeks ago, we walked up Mars Hill. It's a huge old rock, big enough for many people to congregate. It's bumpy though, with weathered outcroppings everywhere. Marble perhaps.

Greece has LOTS of marble. The ancients paved their streets with marble, built columns of marble, and created beautiful statues. Marble magnificently adorns modern Greece as well.

On Mars' Hill old gray boulders muscle up just far enough to have become part of the path and people naturally walk on them. Over decades, maybe centuries, the rough exteriors have in some places been worn away. Beneath that surface roughness glows a warm and beautiful marbly orange interior that becomes shinier the more it is polished by countless soles of tourist shoes.

As I bent closer to confirm what I thought I was seeing, that rock became a metaphor for people. I've met a lot of folks who were crusty and bristly on the outside. As we walked into each others lives, and maybe even stepped on each other a bit, lovely color, vibrancy, beauty, and caring surfaced.

It is good to not be fooled by appearances, to cultivate the ability to look past unpromising exteriors to the person within struggling to be valued and appreciated as worthwhile. It sometimes takes a lot of love to be willing to move past surface impressions, but the resulting friendships can be precious.

God saw beneath Paul's tough and determined exterior, to the willing and honest heart, which He shaped and warmed so that a transformed Paul traveled to Asia and Europe to preach a God of Love.

Christ Jesus “threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God
and lifted their lives higher than their

poor thought-models would allow
— thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying.”
Mary Baker Eddy

The spirit of generosity - giving back

beauty beyond man's making

The year is about 1000 B.C. King David and his people have just contributed generously to the temple that David’s son Solomon will build.

And David reveals his understanding of the source of all goodness when he says, But who are we, “that we should presume to be giving something to you? Everything comes from you; all we’re doing is giving back what we’ve been given from your generous hand.” (The Message, I Chron 29:14)

David was talking about gold, silver, bronze, and jewels. Material things. Even though I don’t believe God gives us “things,” still, I think David had the spirit right.

All that's pure, constant, true, and lasting about life comes from divine Love, and as we express these qualities, we praise and glorify the origin.

We don’t own the qualities, or possess them. Because of their infinite source, we cannot ever use them all up. They aren’t really dependent on DNA or genes.

Whatever is good in life originates in Spirit and that’s why it lasts. Matter doesn’t last. David’s gold and Solomon’s temple were destroyed. But the spirit of generosity permeates all generations, all cultures.

Material beauty fades. But the concept of beauty lasts. We are cheered by beauty every time we discover it - in sunsets, spring flowers, songbirds, Grand Canyon.

As we recognize that God’s giving – kindness, strength, intelligence, patience, healing, foresight, insight, caring – is spiritual, then we can use these gifts generously, productively, creatively, to bless all mankind.

Amazingly we lose nothing in the process. And as we utilize opportunities for sharing, we give back what S/He has given us.

God gives you His spiritual ideas,
and in turn,
they give you daily supplies.
Mary Baker Eddy

The moon, railroad tracks, and you

The senses are useful. They help us enjoy life – tasty things such as sweet strawberries, or blueberry pie, or a favorite soup. Through the senses we enjoy music and art. They also alert us to danger.


Yet they don’t always tell the truth. For instance in the railroad tracks photo two illusions leap out at us. An amazingly large moon hovers over parallel tracks that appear to meet in the distance beyond the photo.

In the other moonrise photo, below – how immense the moon appears.

Experience tells us that the moon doesn’t change size, that the tracks remain forever parallel. In fact the photos may have been fiddled with to give these special effects. We process what-appears-to-be-true and reject it for our contrary knowledge of what is really true so quickly, we don’t even think about it.


It’s helpful to participate in all of life with a willingness to step back and reassess what’s valid. If we accepted the illusion of converging tracks as reality, we’d never get on the train. If we believe that health for instance, is solely dependent on matter, we become restricted to what matter allows and permits.

If there’s a higher source of health, say God, or Truth, or Spirit, our whole life perspective begins to enlarge. The fetters of matter-based being start to fall away. Spiritual laws of Life find a place in our thinking, and somewhere an intuition kicks in that says there’s way more to life that the human senses are able to tell us.

What if the things we see are actually made of things we don’t see? So that where any material object appears to be, right there is really a solid spiritual fact expressing itself. And the spiritual fact is what’s true, what can be depended on.

The way this plays out for me is that anything negative or discouraging, can usually be traced to the limitations of believing matter is a reality, even a law-maker. Whatever is good and hopeful can be traced to that higher power called Mind or Truth. And that’s proving to be a good source for finding out what’s really true.

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It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.

Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.

Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, God,
and to the spiritual sense of being.
Mary Baker Eddy

You must not judge

according to the appearance of things,
But by the reality!
Phillips Modern English

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