# The Word of God is... ## One Flow > “What is our human response along our spiritual journey? First, an awareness that there is one flow, one divine energy, one divine word in the sense of one creative energy flowing through all things, all time, all space. > > — [Original Blessing by Matthew Fox, p 38](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585420670/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1585420670&linkCode=as2&tag=wisdoms_cry-20&linkId=VYCOLGOJLLQIRJYN) In this unity, we learn to walk in the bonds of peace and gentleness.  "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,  with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,  being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.  But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift (Ephesians 4:1-7)." Let me tell you a few stories. The book of Genesis says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness (Gen 1:1-4).” We read in the gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it (John 1:1-5).” In the sixteenth century in Safed, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) taught that in the beginning, God contracted into themself to make a space for creation. This concealed the Aur Ein Soph, the Infinite/Endless Light of the Divine. The Infinite then created ten vessels as the first form of creation. When the Endless poured the Divine Light into these vessels, they couldn’t contain its intensity, and the vessels shattered, which is why the Genesis account says the world was formless and void, Tohu va-Vohu (תהו ובהו). This world of Tohu that we are called to restore through the act of [[7- Tikkun Olam|Tikkun]] Olam, the restoration of the world where we raise the holy sparks back to their place. At the beginning, a singularity erupted, pouring all the energy that is, was, and ever shall be into existence. So much power rushed forth that the light itself could not shine forth as everything danced in the soup of intense energy and heat. Almost equal parts of matter and anti-matter met in the early universe and annihilated each other, but there was more matter, so the universe moved forward. The nascent universe expanded quickly and cooled into hydrogen and swirled into stars that danced into galaxy and the process of evolution built the cosmos we live in. Each of these stories comes from a different time and place. All of them are sacred, even the one from modern science, but are any of them truer than the others? The power of the word/[[Word of God|dabhar]], shapes our perception of the world and how we interact with it. We could discuss the differences between metaphorical, mythical, and factual truth and how they operate on different levels, but in daily life, we rarely make such distinctions. While it is important for us to understand reality, in a practical way, it is more important to interpret these facts in a way that helps us live a life of integrity and [[6- Compassion]]. In the Celtic tradition, “God is the sacred flow that runs through all things, the Light within all light, the Life that courses through the veins of the universe (Newell, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, p. 16).” The Divine is the Light flowing through everything and the ground of our being. For me, all of these stories are true, but I see [[7- Tikkun Olam|Tikkun]] Olam, or the restoration of the world differently than Luria. Since I don’t see the world as existing in a state of Original Sin, but instead one of [[Original Blessing|Original Blessing]], I don’t see the world itself as broken. The world that is arose through an emergent processes and it is our job to co-create this world with God toward the perfection of God. > “For [John Scotus] Eriugena, the Light of the divine is like a subterranean river flowing through the body of the earth and of everything that has being. He interpreted the Greek word for God, theos, as being derived from the Greek verb, theo, which means “to flow or run.” God is the flow of life deep in all things (Newell, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, p. 85).” Through [[Meditation]] and prayer, we connect with and enter this flow and learn to see the Divine Light contained in all things. Our work is not to change or fix the world but to raise these holy spark up so they do not lay stagnant and stale. We raise them through the word/[[Word of God|dabhar]] in how we perceive and name reality and the circumstances of our lives.