>     There’s a
fascinating “exercise” I once read about and it goes like this. Each
morning, upon awakening, picture an Angel walking in front of you
everywhere you go. Now picture that same Angel preceding your every
arrival by announcing these words: “Behold! The image and likeness of
God.” Imagine how you’d feel throughout your day, and imagine how that
would affect how you behaved. Pretty powerful stuff.
    Now, take it one step further.
    Picture everyone else in the world also having an Angel preceding them announcing their arrival, proclaiming the very same words.
    Now, we’re beyond powerful stuff. Now we’re talking Earth-changing.
    That’s the point.
    I was reminded of this “exercise” as I listened to, and read, this
morning’s news. As the economy slips towards recession and people are
generally concerned for the 2008 Presidential election and the
candidates capabilities to handle tough issues in a new and meaningful
way, these concerns pile atop the existing stressors with which each of
us is already trying to manage. As all these stressors reach critical
mass, I see the seeds of discontent beginning to spout around an “us”
vs. “them” mentality.
    Historically when times are difficult,
it has been easy for individuals and groups, with less than noble
intentions, to rally the masses against a common enemy, or target a
scapegoat, to distract us from the real challenges of the day. By
exaggerating differences as opposed to highlighting commonalities, the wedge of separation and the indifference it engenders, opens the door to a place where hateful speech and actions follow.
    Ever the optimist, this crossroad we now face also holds the
potential for a very different outcome. If, instead of falling into the
rut of worn out paths that have not served us well, we acknowledge and
honor our differences while simultaneously acknowledging in word and
deed that we are of One Source having One Intention, then it will be
possible to forge a new path where diversity becomes the capital we
exchange to enhance not only ourselves but also one another as well.
    What does “in the image of likeness of God” mean?  Well, I would
say that “in the image” is some reference to our biological and
physiological components. And while not meaning that literally, I do
mean that on some level, our physical composition and
functioning is an energetic semblance of the essential components of
Source. There is nothing we need do to be in the image of God. Our physical existence makes us so.
    However, to be “in the likeness of God” means to act in a way that also reflects how God “acts.” I
would suggest that the answer to that conundrum in evidenced in the
beauty, harmony and self-organizing principles we see manifested all
around us in Nature. There, exists clear evidence of a level of harmony
and cooperation that is for the highest good of all concerned. Not that
it is free of death, but that it is free of greed and
baseless aggression. There, diversity is the stuff the continued
existence of All is made of and, so, has it’s rightful place.     In
Nature, it is as if before every living creature, except humankind,
there goes an Angel proclaiming, “Behold the image and likeness of
God.”  From this, we can now learn a valuable lesson.
    Or not.
    We can be blindly led and ultimately consumed by the purveyors of
hate and division, or we can say “no” to that choice and instead say
“yes” to our own inherent divinity as well as the inherent divinity of
all others.
    Remember, at the beginning I said it was an
“exercise”…this walking with you Angel and seeing others in the same
light.  As such, it will take the practicing of that exercise to shift
our consciousness to the point where this becomes for us the natural
state of things. But losing 10 pounds or becoming proficient at tennis
or piano are also exercises that take practice.
    I don’t know about you but I certainly think having my own Angel is definitely worth the workout.

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