A Course in Miracles Lesson 29

God is in everything I see

Little needs to be said about this lesson (though long-winded bastard that I am, I’ll probably find a way) beyond this beautiful thought:

Try then, today, to begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation, and open-mindedness. You do not see them now (W-pI.29.3:1-2).

It is easy to get hung up here on the metaphysics. God is in this pile of grungy snow? God is in that frozen compost? Really?

I like God better in glittering ice. I like God better in yesterday’s bald eagle.

I think of this lesson as straddling two levels of perception. On the one hand, it is a deeply religious and, yes, metaphysical declaration. It is a clear invitation to perceive – indeed, to see and to know – God. It reminds me of Lesson 15 a little – the so-called light show. I don’t have a lot of fireworks on fifteen, but there are times when I apply this lesson and the resultant glittering clarity brings tears to my eyes. It is like seeing the form clearly and knowing it is a mere veil drawn across the face of Love which is the content, which is everything.

So yes. I love this lesson for its power and its ability – resting in part on our diligent application of the lessons that precede it – to bring us close to revelation.

Yet this lesson also roots me in the world. It makes the world so beautiful and articulate that my heart breaks being in it. And it’s not metaphysical, either. It’s just that I am actually able – for a few minutes here and there – to see with “love, appreciation and open-mindedness.” And isn’t that, in and of itself, a wonderful goal?

Somehow, this lesson seems to be a turning point, a moment when we become gentle and loving with the world in which we believe we live, while simultaneously experiencing the reality of our existence which is so far beyond these shadowy forms and shallow unsatisfactory narratives.

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I want to add this: today when I was practicing this lesson I was often distracted. There were a lot of curve balls today – unexpected phone calls, hours lost in activities that needed to be dealt with but weren’t planned, et cetera. That’s life and I’m not complaining. But it wasn’t a smooth and effortless lesson day. It was more like looking up, noticing a clock and saying, “damn, I forgot to say ‘God is in everything I see.'”

And you know what? I still felt the love. I still felt the grace. We’re in good hands.