The Now as Sacred

I hope all of us have at least one hero in our life. It doesn’t really matter whether that person is living or dead. What matters is that he or she brings inspiration to your life. One such person for me is Abraham Joshua Heschel, the late twentieth century theologian and philosopher. He is one of my spiritual heroes.

Rabbi Heschel was able to perceive the presence of God essentially everywhere he turned his gaze, even in the structure of wherever it is you may be reading these words. He sensed God’s presence in the blades of grass under our feet, in the branches of the trees swaying in the wind, in the majesty of the mountains that crown our earthly home, in the pebbles lying on the road “in petrified amazement.”

Most importantly for me, Heschel found God in something that cannot be seen with the naked eye; he found this moment, every moment to manifest God’s presence, for he understood the now, the moment we inhale with our every breath to be sacred.

Living, I believe, is realizing the possibility contained in each passing moment of our life. The possibility of what could be within those moments makes us aware of God. What we do with those moments could make God’s presence even more manifest.

How are you using the moments of your life?

AMS