Something about the last discussion was still unsettled. I couldn’t really put my finger on it at first. But this morning I realized what it was. It has to do with “tuning in” – which is what I called the last post but without fully developing the thought.
In my personal experience, the more I pay attention to the wonders of the world, the more I am able to see and feel the presence of Hashem. This applies both to nature and to events. Let’s start with nature. If I stop and pay attention to the beauty of the trees and flowers, the ever-changing sky with its cloud formations and colors, the beauty of individual human beings, our ability to see and think and feel, and many other aspects of this world, I am struck with the awesomeness of Hashem. This is something that at times is more prominent and at times is less so, but the more thought and attention that I devote to it, the greater is my recognition of G-d in this world.
Events are a bit more complicated, as I wrote about in my previous post. But I realized that here too, the more I look for it, the more I see it. While it is true that there are many complexities, and that we don’t really understand HOW G-d intervenes in the world, we can appreciate that indeed He does if we only stop and pay attention.
Have you ever been able to look back upon events that happened in your life, where things that may have seemed senseless took on meaning in the greater context of time? To me, this type of awareness also leads to a sense of awe in how Hashem is here with us in this world. I don’t think we have to solve the dilemmas inherent in this issue, as discussed in the previous post, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to pay attention and appreciate the details.
Here too, the more thought and attention that we put into it, the more awareness we have. This, for me, is uplifting.
There is one more angle to this that I have been thinking about. Just as we tend to think linearly and logically in nature, but that reality does not always fit our logic, the same may be true for events. Let me explain. As an example, from our perspective, we experience time as absolute. But in reality, it has been proven that time is relative when it taken outside of our normal parameters. (This involves physical parameters such as gravity and velocity and is beyond the scope of this post, and also beyond my comprehension, but it is a scientific reality). Time is just one example. Modern physics is full of illogical and even seemingly impossible, scientifically proven facts.
So I am comfortable with the fact that we can’t really wrap our minds around this dilemma, just as I am comfortable with the fact that we can’t “know” G-d. But I do believe that we can sense Him in different ways in this world. If we can sense G-d through the events that happen to us, even without understanding how it can be so, it can be awe-inspiring. It’s almost like getting a glimpse or a tiny taste of something much greater than us, something that is all G00d, and wholly loving.
And maybe, just maybe, the more we pay attention and tune in, the more we can merit Hashem’s presence in our lives. I hope that it works this way. But I am happy enough knowing that our sense of the Divine is something that we can develop and work on infinitely in countless ways, and this in itself is a great reward.