God is...

Not an easy topic, but one I broached a few weeks ago with a classmate. Here were some of the musings I ended up with

God created the world, in six days, God created. On the seventh day, God rested. But what does the whole creation aspect actually mean? Even more than that, what does it mean that God created these things and continues to create it? The seasons, the weather, the earth-all these things are parts of the world that none of us has active agency in creating. We are partners in continuing to engage with the world and often act to destroy the beauty which God created, but how?

Seriously, how is it that the sun, the rain, the moon, the stars, the ground and everything else came to exist. We certainly don't have any say in what happens with the weather or the land. We can impact it with global warming or with other human agency, but the basic tenants that make earth inhabitable are not created by human agency. These things happen whether we want them to or not (and humanity as a whole sometimes seems dead set on destroying the world that was created for them.

Maybe that is what is meant when the Torah says we are made בצלם אלוהים, in the image of God. The point is that we are partners with God, created also by God's hand in order to further the rest of the world's beauty. We have the choice (arguably) to continue to work as God's partner or to throw out all of that ability and challenge the work of God. In addition, we can challenge God in a positive or a negative way. I can continue to help people and be nice, but challenge the idea of free choice or challenge my relationship with other people, but I am not actively engaging in a decision to make the world a less whole and happy place.

So, maybe God is in everything. If I complicate matters of my own personal connection to the world by saying that God is involved in everything, I am also a part of God's creation. I am Godly. Wow. Not something I have ever felt comfortable with, but something I am going to learn how to consider.