Life, and health and peace (Panentheism)

"In this Spirit (the Spirit of Life), it is not just one part of life that is already immortal here and now; it is the whole of life, because that life is interpenetrated by eternal life, as by the spring that is its source".
Jurgen Moltmann - the Coming of God.

Many, many years ago, a friend bought me the book God in Creation by the above author. Although I couldn't get my head around everything he wrote and certainly disagreed with some of it, something rang deep and true in what he was driving at - how we can find hope for today and the future because of the life God gives to the world in His beloved Son.

"Anyone who understands nature as God's creation sees in nature not merely God's 'works', but also traces of God - tokens of His presence. God's signature is upon all of this".
(God in Creation).

In the years that followed, I came to recognize that same vital theme in, first, the work of Irenaeus and also of Martin Luther. Moltmann had indeed tapped the glorious spring that flows from the tree of life - that what truly enriches and completes creation is the life which becomes ours from God (take a look at the parable of the merchant and the field - Matthew 13:44,45 - to glean an over-view of the relationship between God and creation).

We can, of course, entirely choose to miss the markers, but that is tellingly hard, especially today, when the only way to do so is to bury ourselves in neo-darwinian myth to escape the very prevalent data about the essential nature of the universe.

The truth that is there if we care to see that we live in a universe beautifully balanced and so lavishly adorned to provide for all our material requirements, and to constantly push each of us further into seeking and looking for fulfillment of a far deeper need... genuine conversation and thereby communion with our Creator. Truly, then, the reality of our existence is a realm which urges us to look beyond ourselves, to find purpose and definition, and it is in those moments when we do so (i.e. giving ourselves for others, contemplating the numinous behind the stability we enjoy), that we find the real depths of what surrounds us - not a cold, detached realm, but the touch and whisper of purpose and meaning.

That's the case with Christian Panentheism - it's not pantheism (god is merely the material) or deism (god is totally removed from the material), but seeks to show how God is truly part of our world, yet distinct from it.

Here's an explanation.

The reason this matters is because of what Moltmann (and other theologians) note about the essential nature of the created order -
"The crown of creation is not the human being; it is the sabbath*. (This) gives the human being with his special position with the cosmos the opportunity to understand himself as a member of the community of creation".

(*take a look at Hebrews chapter 2:5-16 concerning humanity (it's proper estate), and then chapter 4:9 regarding the rest (sabbath) that is still to come).

The intention of God in making all things was that what He had made would become a domain filled with His radiance - in other words, replete with the splendor of the joy of the communion shared in the community of Father, Son and Spirit. The Seventh day in creation is an image of that completion, just as Christ's resurrection is the foretaste of the manner of the life that is to define that amazing realm - they both speak of a day to come when God is truly with us forever.

What we may term the 'inner secret' of creation, then, is where all of history, all of time and space, is leading - to that 'day' when the Father, Son and Spirit will truly inhabit and 'rest' (be refreshed and delight) in creation. Here will indeed be a new realm  - a heaven and earth defined by the Son's giving of Himself to make us children redeemed by love - where everything we are and do will be defined by love and will facilitate a full and free manner of life in all of our being, body and soul.

When we truly love someone, we get a modicum of the manner of that eternal life. We know a joy and a wonder that overwhelms us and leads us to begin to live and to work for a whole new purpose. The same is true when the love of God is shed abroad within our hearts, and the truth of the life given for us informs and inspires our thinking and actions in this present age - we become people longing to be more enveloped in the splendor of the one who so loves us.

The intention of our Heavenly Father is to see His beloved Son fill all things with that amazing nature that gives all to make us free to live (Ephesians 1:23). He will not be content with anything less....

So why should we?