“We are already one, but we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”

—Thomas Merton

Helder inquires of Passerby, “What would you suppose if I were to say to you, our Father and I are one?”

“I would assume that you must be perfect.”

Helder says, “I see you have a very different relationship to ‘sin’ than I do.”

“Meaning?”

“You assume that the prerequisite for a relationship with the Holy is perfection, an imaginary state of Godlikeness, and it is not. In my lifetime, I have never witnessed perfection in a human because it doesn’t exist. According to your standard, neither you nor I are capable of a loving relationship with others or with Her. If that is the case, Her purpose for creating humans is already defeated.

But the plan is not defeated by anything so impotent as an indifferent humanity. Did you notice in the creation narrative where Elohim is after he [sic] throws the humans out of the garden? The Ruach Elohim (Spirit) is with the woman and the man outside the garden. She did not break her relationship with them for what some have, to their shame, referred to as ‘the fall.’”

• • •

“According to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, there exist[ed] roughly 43,000 Christian denominations worldwide in 2012. That is up from 500 in 1800 and 39,000 in 2008 and this number is expected to grow to 55,000 by 2025. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimates that a new Christian denomination is formed every 10.5 hours, or 2.3 denominations a day.”

—Churchrelevance.com

In the last guess-timation that I stumbled across, there were around 45K Christian denominations, each new one, in my humble assessment, representing yet another failure to live in the generosity toward one another that Rabbi Jesus extended to us when he prayed, “I pray that they all may be one, even as you and I Father, are one” (John 17), and when he taught us to pray “Our Father in heaven,” by which he teaches us to assume we share a Father.

With all sincerity, I can say with Jesus, “The Father (of Jesus) and I are one.” I do not say so because I am especially worthy, perfected, or entitled but because I have apprehended the truth of what She has done. It is an unfortunate myth repeated by those whose god is as stingy–as they have learned to be–that says She and I were ever separated. Even were I to walk a thousand miles away from her, change my mind (repent), and turn around, there She is. Like I never left. Then, a single step in Her direction is into the ‘fountain fullness’ of Her restorative Love. We are one with the Great Spirit because our oneness is reality. And:

“No, there is nothing we can do to make her love us more,
and there is nothing we can do to make her love us less.”

—Phillip Yancey

But oneness doesn’t mean somehow becoming Elohim’s favorite. It means taking our cosmic and personal place within Her Self. While in the Spirit one day, She asked me, “Would you be just as happy understanding yourself as one Loved grain of sand on my cosmic beach, or must you forever be the shiniest pebble?”

Of course, I replied, “I want to be the shiniest pebble. I want to be special.” I simply cannot help it. We all do. But do I want others to be less than I am? I say no. I want to be as unique in Her eyes as anyone ever was, and yet, not at the expense of anyone else. Dualism would have us believe we must choose one or the other, you or me. But Love says all are especially favored with Her Love. Each as though they were the only one. Each of us is Her favorite. Her Love of all She created is as big as that!

The human-kind is the only kind Elohim created with the will to exercise the right She gave us, to refuse Her Love (i.e., to live in the ditch). We walk the Way Rabbi Jesus always taught us as an act of our free will. We must be free to choose to Love Her or refuse to Love Her, or it is not Love. A relationship that will not accept no for an answer is not a Love relationship. In fact,

the possibility of receiving no as an answer is
what makes our yes valuable to Her.

I Love this path!