The Christ

At some point in the 50 year history of our house, someone planted a pear tree in the front yard.

"Oh wow", you might say. "That sounds amazing! Fresh pears right in your front yard."

And you would think so, right? Like, you would think it would be pretty cool to have a pear tree outside the front steps where fresh pears would fall from the sky each spring and summer day.

For a while we thought it was pretty cool. We ate a few pears right off the branch. We thought about collecting a bunch and making some sort of pie or dessert. They're a little grainy to use in a smoothie, but we gave that a whirl once and it tasted pretty good.

Last Summer, though, we had the pear tree cut down and thrown into a chipper because although it was a beautiful tree that bore much fruit, that fruit would fall onto our driveway, it would hit our cars, and it would attract tons and tons of bees that have stung Jordan, Dana, and myself. It also attracted stray cats, snakes, and all sorts of other things that you really don't want hanging around 10 feet from the front door of your house.

It was a bit irritating.

It was annoying.

It was a nuisance.

The pear tree, though - at some point someone planted a seed, right? A pear seed. Whether the tree was birthed in a pot or right in our front lawn, whatever the case may be ... it started as a seed and grew into a tree that has dropped thousands of pears to the ground over the last 40+ years. 

I'm thinking about seeds this morning because aren't we all seeds? Aren't we all seeds of God? Seeds of the Divine? Seeds of The Christ? 

"The Christ", I believe, is the breath or the energy of God that is pulsating through the entire universe. It's the part of this great cosmic recipe that brings Divinity to everything and everyone. The writer of Genesis said that we are all "made in the image of God" and that God "breathed life into Adam". 

That image.

That breath.

That's "The Christ" and it was, I think, perfectly manifested in the person of Jesus some 2000 years ago not so much because he had something special that you and I don't have, but because he perfectly lived his life from that breath, from that energy, from The Christ (that we all have!) in the way that God has intended for all of us to live. 

In other words.

Just at the breath or energy of God was infused into Jesus so it's also infused into you and into me, it's just that Jesus fully tapped into it and (therefore) modeled for you and for me how to live as the truly Divine human beings that we are.

I realize there's a whole world of Christianity that would call everything I just said hogwash and dismiss it as heresy ... and I get that. I came from that world and I used to think that people like me who spewed these wild ideas around were heretics and lost souls who were dabbling in New Age nonsense.

I'd demand "Scripture verses".

I'd say, "if that's all true then what about this verse and that verse?"

I'd use my Bible and my interpretation of the Bible to flex my muscles and make my points.

Back then I would look at my Bible and could never in a million years understand how someone could read that same Bible and come away with the thoughts I mentioned above ... but these days, 10 or so years later, I can't understand how someone can read the Bible and NOT come away with these ideas!

Meister Eckhart once said that "a pear seed grows into a pear tree, a hazel seed into a hazel tree, and a seed of God into God."

Hm.

And so perhaps the incarnation of Jesus showed us that humanity and God are not all that different, but are (in fact) very much the same? Perhaps Jesus didn't put on human skin to show us how DIFFERENT we are from God and to rub our noses in our sins and mistakes and shortcomings, but to show us how SIMILAR we are to God? So that we might be able to look at Jesus who had arms and legs and flesh and blood and see ourselves in him ... see ourselves reflected back at us? And by seeing ourselves in him ... perhaps we would wake up to remember that The Christ we see in front of us in Jesus is the same Christ that is buried deep inside of us AND just as Jesus lived his life from the energy of The Christ so you and I and everyone else have the potential to do the same. 

Perhaps this is why in John's Gospel (8:12) Jesus is called the "light of the world" and then in Matthew's Gospel (5:14) you and I are called the "light of the world". 

Isn't that interesting?

Jesus is the light of the world.

You and I are the light of the world.

... We're both the same much more so than we are different.

Perhaps rather than showing us how different we are from God, perhaps Jesus' main goal was to show us how similar we are to God and how just as the seed that was planted in my front yard some 40 years ago that grew into a pear tree, so you and I (as seeds of God, as seeds of the Divine, as seeds of radiant light) have the potential to grow into the very Divinity that planted us here when we were conceived. 

And maybe some people won't like that very much.

Yeah?

Maybe some people will find our divine Christ bearing annoying or a hindrance, a nusiance ... and maybe those who don't wake up to see these things will find them threatening or annoying or heretical and will (like we did with our pear tree) try to cut us down, throw us into a chipper, and silence us. 

I don't know what it all means, my friends. I'm on a journey. But this morning rather than reflect on all of my shortcomings and mistakes and sins, I'm reflecting on my potential - on the radiant seed of light that is beaming from the core of my being, wooing me and calling me and empowering me to live a Divine life of love and joy and goodness and peace ... just as we see so perfectly in the life of Jesus The Christ.

Much love.

Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE / MY BOOK