I want to share with you something I’ve read about a certain devise. I have found it serves as an excellent, though limited, analogy to how we may understand God and the cosmos, time, history and even salvation. I read about this devise in the quantum physicist David Bohm’s essay, “The Enfolding-Unfolding Universe” (1980). Although Bohm was applying it to an understanding of the universe, I have found it helpful in helping me to understand incarnation as well:
This devise consists of two concentric glass cylinders, with a highly viscous fluid such as glycerine between them, which is arranged in such a way that the outer cylinder can be turned very slowly, so that there is negligible diffusion of the viscous fluid. A droplet of insoluble ink is placed in the fluid, and the outer cylinder is then turned, with the result that the droplet is drawn out into a fine thread-like form that eventually becomes invisible. When the cylinder is turned in the opposite direction the thread-form draws back and suddenly becomes visible as a droplet, essentially the same as the one that was there originally (see the diagram).
All things come from God (the ink prior to enfoldment), and to God all things shall return (the ink droplet unfolded after enfoldment). I suggest that this devise provides an illustration of that idea. We are presently living in the time of enfoldment, where God is graciously and intentionally diffused throughout all existence, invisible and undetectable. My understanding of the incarnation is that God has totally invested himself in creation, condescending to be completely enfolded in it. We cannot distinguish between a material universe without God and God enfolded into the material universe, it is so thoroughly complete, the All in all.
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David Hayward is an artist trapped in a pastor's body, stripping to the essential.
Tat tuam asi
Makes perfect sense. Jesus walked the earth in the Spirit without measure.When He sent the Holy Spirit. still the same anointing, it was, and is, diffused among mankind, In the end we will all come together as one…still the same anointing, but unified again..
Tiggy…did you mean tat tvam asi?
The mere fact that there are those that are searching, shows the lostness that is inherent in the human condition.
“shows the lostness that is inherent in the human condition” (Steve)
Of course were lost Steve, we come into this world as infants inheriting a whole history of times before us…which we have to catch up to and make sense of in our current society. One cannot help but feel lost when they see the scope of how big the world and time is and how it impacts generation to generation.
I think in that sense we all feel a tad lost…trying to find our place in this world as Michael Smith once wrote about.
Societyvs,
What you said made me think of this quote and I thought you might enjoy it:
“Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.”
— Joseph Campbell