I believe the person known as Jesus is also the unknowable God of creation who took on a one hundred percent human body to share our experience as human beings alive in the world. Although this wonderful event happened two thousand sixteen years ago, many lives down through time found themselves changed in a big way. Jesus died at the hands of human beings who had made their own Gods and worshipped them. It was thought that a human being who claimed equality with God meant death by crucifixion. The problem was they could not see what Jesus did in the actual lives of human beings could only be accomplished by the power of God. So — Jesus died. God-come-down dead.

But don’t forget. God is not dead. Just the human body God inhabited like the bodies you and I live in while we are alive.

But you want to know something tremendous. On the surface it looks like God is no longer present in our lives. There is a God — somewhere — we don’t know because we can’t know. And then there is you and me and us. That is the way it appears to many people. I am alone. God is wherever God is, if there is a God. And I am here. Period. Empty.

But what about this thing in the Christian faith called the Holy Spirit. Yes — spirit. Like you and I have. That part of us that gives us life. The spirit of life we all know and have.

The Holy Spirit is the God of life connecting with our lives personally. It is God’s presence within us — deep down under our ability to understand it. It is personal. A personal God for persons. This does not mean you and I are therefore made into Gods. What it does mean is that God’s presence through the Holy Spirit is a personal presence. I have seen many people — my self included — deeply moved by the warming touch of the living God present within us. It is truly the “connect” that I believe we all desperately seek even though we may call it by different names.

You may feel alone, but you are not alone. You may feel God is somewhere else and has nothing to do with you.

NOT.

There are questions we all ask. For instance: “Why am I here?” “What is the purpose of this thing called my life?” Am I just a physical thing like the animals — or is there something more to me? “Is there really a God? And if there is, does that God care about my existence?”

Deep within each of us is something unique. Call it what you want, but I call it soul. It is that part of us that stands apart from ourselves so that we can observe ourselves alive in this world. If I may, it is the soul that enables us to look at our hands and say “That is MY hand. It belongs to ME.” Weird? You bet. But it is this uniquely human ability to step out of ourselves and observe ourselves that is called soul. It is unique. It is also I believe modeled on the God of creation. There is a desire to connect. It is this desire to connect to something above us that drives us to fashion all sorts of Gods of this world that are easy to see and feel good about. For many of us the gods we want to connect with to find some kind of meaning in life are our own output: “My god that gives my life meaning is what you see me putting out there. That is all that is important”

Well. It is part of why God entered our own experience. God became one of us to call us back into relationship. This God whom we can never know chose to leave wherever God exists and become one of us. Having to find something to eat, a place to stay, seeking fellowship with others are not unknown to this God we often think is so far removed as not to care. We may never “know” this God like we know each other, but we sense our need to “connect” deep down. Likewise it is this God that wants to connect with us that we must be open to.

When you have those moments when things about who you are and what you are about become big and unclear issues for you, never forget that the God you seek is closer than you think. It began with a person two thousand sixteen years ago and continues today.