The web

Throughout man's history, there has always been an attempt to see the world in one comprehensive metaphor: the human is microcosm, the machine, the Gaia Principle, the harmonious balance of Yin Yang. Modern science has come to the realization that the study of the object must give way to the study of relationships between objects. Hence the productive metaphor of the web or the network.

These webs are abstract and can't always been seen, but they attend to the relationships among things and people and processes. They allow us to "see" what previously we could not: the connections between the bee, the flower, the weather, the toxins, the gardener, the predator.

When I imagine God, I imagine a presence seeking human awareness. The timeless phrase, "Love thy neighbor," is the trigger. When every human person comes to see every human person as a neighbor to be loved, that web of relationships is God. Of course, in this world that seems like a complete impossibility. Still we can pockets of God all around us, even if temporary when we are met with great tragedies and catastrophic events.