By Col. Dr. Dencio Acop (Ret)
Have you ever felt something you’ve never felt before? Has something so uncanny ever happened to you or around you that you’ve wondered about but can’t explain? Have you ever come close to death? But have you also felt peace with just the simplest things in life like being with your loved ones or seeing a tiny beautiful flower or a pair of birds take off into the air? I was just having coffee with my daughter and, among other things, we talked about seeing God in the beauty of nature. Australia is certainly a place where there’s lots of nature even if much of the continent is actually hot and dry desert. But even nature is found in the desert and the desert has its own beauty. I do not know about you but each time I do my daily walks or runs, I just can’t help to sense the beauty all around me and its connection to my soul.
They say that the spirit of the Creator is in his every creation and that every creature of his will not find meaning until it rests in him. We may be natural but we in fact seek the supernatural too. It is the nature of all things to evolve in order to survive. Born in the image and likeness of the Creator God, man senses both physical and supernatural realms by virtue of his divine soul. It is only the absence of faith that limits man’s capacity to see beyond the physical. For the empiricist merely uses his mind to see and neglects his heart. But the believer uses both his heart and mind to experience life. It is this affective sense that I refer to when I say that I see God when I do my daily walks and runs through this world. In the beauty of the blue sky and green forests; The flight of the birds and the calmness of the lake. In the fading darkness and the coming of light. In the glory that renews my soul and makes me one with the universe. One with the Creator.
Yes indeed I see God. Not as Abraham or the Prophets did. But in and all things. That come from and belong to him. And none is more in your face than other human beings he’s created. Humanity has come a long way. Since Jesus, God is literally incarnate in every human being. Our baptism affirms this. We all see God. Many among us just simply refuse to acknowledge it’s him they see. Our minds deceive us and we fail to use our hearts. Our minds tell us that there is no God in nature or that beggar we just passed by. Even though the compassion we feel in our hearts oftentimes say otherwise. We have come to discern compassion through the eyes of science but not of art. All mind but no heart. Yet the art that actually engulfs science has kept tagging at us not to ignore the compassion that now allows us to see God. In the crucified Christ some 2000 years before. And in each other today since.
