TRUTH . . . ENDS SEPARATION
(continued)

That was all. But it was enough. My grief had caused me to forget what I had learned through many years of experience - that God and I were one; He was All and in All. I can only simply tell you that the divine encounter further changed my perspective, as it always does. I once again realised that the Creator and the creation were wrapped up in one bundle of life. He was not merely transcendent, sitting far above our suffering, but was feeling it all now. He was not only living in us, but as us. I already knew this as a fact, but obviously a deeper experiential knowing was needed to bring solace to a man sick with sorrow and exhaustion.

This may not have been the plan we would have opted for, but it is evident we do not see the whole or final picture. I resided in Romford, a town in the county of Essex, for thirteen years, where Francis Quarles lived in the seventeenth century. He exhorted his fellows not to 'judge the play before the final act' and I recalled these timely words as something of God's peace began to course through my veins once more.

Even without all the answers, we can go forward knowing we go as God, ever in human weakness and dependence, but undergirded by a quiet confidence. We are secure in the knowledge that He is in us and we are in Him. Some of us will make an obvious impact, some a behind-the-scenes contribution, but all of us hopefully not too aware of any good we may do. We are just being ourselves.

'For me to live is Christ' belongs to us in the twenty-first century as much as to the writer's contemporaries in the first. If the Christ of Galilee should ever say to us, 'When I was thirsty you gave me a drink, when I was in prison you visited me', hopefully we would reply, 'When did we do this, Lord?'. But in deeper moments we understand a little more. To embrace another living soul is to embrace God. There is no separation, we are all of a piece. Harmony is restored to our understanding. I believe much of our travail is to bring us to this inner knowledge, so that even though we may so often seem part of the problem, we know we are also part of the answer.

I do not pretend this knowledge will satisfy all our questing or remove all the mystery, but it does cause us to possess a quiet peace within the turmoil existing at the turn of another century. It can put the mystical power of resurrection into bodies that sometimes hardly have the strength to take the next step. There is joy in the midst of our sorrow.

God is here at Wit's End Corner, and that is the truth.

© Maurice Smith 2004

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