Sunday Wisdom

From One Mountain, Many Paths
An American Freemason Speaks Out for Peace

by Dr. Patrick Swift
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Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties all of them but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

I Corinthians 12:4 - 7
Christianity

Lauded and glorified art Thou, O Lord, my God! How can I make mention of Thee, assured as I am that no tongue, however deep its wisdom, can befittingly magnify Thy name, nor can the bird of the human heart, however great its longing, ever hope to ascend into the heaven of Thy majesty and knowledge.

Gleanings from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'í

The first quote reminds me of something I learned as a teacher of elementary school. We are all different and unique. "Each of us is but one in all of time." is a quote I heard someplace. It appealed to me. I made a banner of it and put it up in one of those little spaces above the chalkboard. Many people fit into a "mold" and as a result most instruction is geared towards them. Some students learn quickly and others learn more slowly. Some of us reverse thing. I have a tendency to turn two numbers around and that is a mild form of dyslexia. I have learned to sub-vocalize the numbers and that helps me to get them right. There are lots of people that way. In fact most people have some sort of learning "quirk." Schools have learned to address those differences in learning. Special classes and teachers help students to address their different learning styles. My expectation was much like the first verse quoted today. Everybody had a gift. It was up to me to try to find that gift and work with it.

It really disturbs me when we put people down because they are different. Schools can sometimes cause students to feel inferior because they are different. Case in point - they used to try to teach left handed people to become right handed. Simple but it was so pervasive that they caused perfectly normal left handed people to feel they were inferior and generations of left handed kids tried to disguise their writing so that others would not know they were "different."

We all have to learn that each person is made in God's image and that image is Spiritual and the differences are to be celebrated as a part of the kaleidoscope of the human experience...and valued because of it.

The second quotation reminds me that however rich our human experience and language we can never adequately express God or describe him. That is perhaps why we try anthropomorphizing Him and turn Him into something he is not. Perhaps it is enough that He understands us and has sent us teachers to show us His love. Have a great week.