2022.01.02 Shop Till You Drop—But Not Dead. Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post, 1/2/22

One of the most prominent activities that lures the younger generations, is shopping. It is how they divert their attention and how they focus it. While we are all shopping may we all pray as we go—for Life itself and an end to Fear, the dominant “religion” of choice. 

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Once in my late 70’s, I went shopping with my two daughters in their 50s. Once was enough. They dashed around the store at mach speed, snatching up garments and accessorizing them each as they went. I stood dazed, awed, resisting the temptation to sit down in a corner and suck my thumb. I bought nothing, and they could not figure out what was wrong with me—nor I with them.

I obviously am not a good shopper, but that does not mean that I am not one of God’s more curious creatures, my mind full of questions about life and death and awfulness and wonderfulness at once. I always see both light and shadow in everyone and everything. When I shop I am not driven by clothes or glittering jewelry, but by ideas—ideas that glow in the dark. 

Why then, I wonder, do we religious folks, or those who worry about the validity of the religious project, not present a Divinity attractive to the shopping generations?

There are many and varied images of the Supreme Being in a variety of attractive hues suitable for any and all occasions, portable and reproducible as needed according to your own dearest and deepest desires of heart. You have to know yourself to know God, but prayer does not depend on your having the “correct” image of God or any image at all.  

Is this creating God in your own image? Yes, but—God has no way to you but through you, and when you pray, you open your heart to Life and Life without Fear. ’Ts enough.

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My intuition, however, tells me that people are shopping for God-images. So why do we not advertise God? Why not set out a variety of images to attract shoppers? Varieties of shoppers of all generations, locations, spiritualities, and interests?

Last week I blogged about the “beloved ass”—an image of divine determination, divine strength, and tolerance for all kinds of human need. This image shows off the God of steadfast faithfulness and sturdy loyalty through thick and thin—no matter what.

This week, according to ancient—symbolic not literal—story, the three Magi, one female, one black, one Asian, finally arrive at the nativity scene with their gifts—expensive gifts, extravagant gifts, overdone affluence from their abundance. Why? Why not?

 

Here is another among the multiple images of divinity, and attributes thereof. A man named Jon Gallie, a wildlife biologist with the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife, has devoted his life to finding and protecting endangered species. Here he holds one of North America’s tiniest rabbit species, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit. These minute critters, with bodies the size of a mango, feast on pungent sagebrush across the plateau. Their survival and food supply have been threatened by wildfires that have swept across eastern Washington, Oregon, and into Idaho. Thanks to human intervention, these rabbits have been rescued and placed into predator-free enclosures where they can breed. (National Geographic, Winter, 2021)

Is this not an image of the hand of Divinity—incarnate in human flesh?  This holy work of salvation is tiny, considered by some to be insignificant, mostly unknown to the world, precious, extremely tender, gentle, and yes, divine.  

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Do pray—god or no god/God/Godde. Keep praying your own personal causes, needs, and cares, using your own images. AND please pray deeply and daily for Life itself—for the salvation of Earth and the whole Cosmos. May your prayers have the steady sturdiness of the beloved donkey and the the tender frailty of the newborn infant and the aged adult. Thank you.

©LynBrakeman, 2021