God Comes Disguised

             There is a longing in the human heart to search for God, to encounter the Sacred, and to know one’s Creator face-to-face. At times, we get lost in following our drives, achieving things, or building our petty success stories. However, often new situations, particularly of failures and helplessness, remind us about our deepest need for God and how everything else is meaningless without having the touch of God in our lives. Our deep longing for God triggers a search for God and we might wonder where to find God or how to experience God. This article does not intend to explain the great mystery of encountering God or to tell you the exact location where God might be found. Instead, I hope that these few words might be a lamp to those who search for God. 

             Paula D’Arcy[1], a spiritual writer and leader, says: 

“God comes to you disguised as your life”.

Often, we look for God everywhere, except in our lives. We are like musk deer in search of fragrance that is hidden within. The sagacious words of D’Arcy, surprisingly, yet truly, invite us to pay attention to life itself. God comes to us in the form of all moments of our life – through our joys and sorrows, successes and failures, communion and solitude, spiritual and mundane experiences, being on a mountain top and having a cup of tea at home. 

The question is “Do we recognize God when God comes, and the way God comes”? Or, do we stick to our old and rigid thinking and keep demanding that God should come to us only through ways that we sanction? Spiritual rigidity makes us blind to the ever-flowing presence of God in our lives. 

God comes to us right where we are. To experience God in the now we need to keep ourselves open and pay attention to life itself, all that is within and around us. If we have eyes to see and a heart to feel then we can meet God who comes to us disguised as our life. 

For further reflection, I would like to leave you with two questions:

1.     What do the words “God comes to you disguised as your life” evoke in you?

2.     What does “paying attention to life” mean to you?

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[1] Paula D’Arcy is an author, retreat leader, speaker, playwright, and former psychotherapist. In 2001 she established the Red Bird Foundation, which supports the growth and spiritual development of those in need.