God is All

As I write the talk I am giving to the women of All Saints tomorrow at their luncheon, I am newly aware of God as ALL--all time is in God. Even when I am unaware for years, as I was in my younger years, God was, is, and always will be.
I have become aware of God's continued openings to me throughout my life. I still don't realize them all and probably never will, but I am beginning to see a few. How could I not know that God was drawing me in when I asked to be baptized and confirmed in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bellingham, WA when I was in 11th grade? No one else suggested or invited me to. My parents didn't care one way or the other about "religion." God cared.

For a long time I confused God and "church" and "Christianity", which I think my children probably still do, except maybe Margaret. Humans created church and each religion as pointers to the Holy, but eventually all these seem to elevate themselves to autocratic idolatry. I've done this, too. God is ALL--the Holy One who loves. As I read in Beverly Ann's column for All Saints Episcopal Church (http://allsaintscorpuschristi.org/)--
"What I find important, as well as ministering, is that God, in whatever Form or Person, loves me through all Eternity. . . Our love for everything in the Earth replicates that love God has for us. Because God loves us, we can love, Meister Eckhart went even further, saying that he didn't thank God for loving him, 'because God's very nature requires that God love.' I believe our very nature requires that we love."