God loves:

Metaphor, Mystery. Beauty, Variation... He/She loves to laugh, with a wry sense of humor and a compassionate heart. How did I come to this conclusion? The clues are everywhere, reflected in ourselves and the nature of our world.

Putting clues together is part of the adventure of the mystery. Creating us "in His/Her image" is yet another mysterious metaphor. Do we look like God? We hardly even look like each other.

So just what is an image? A reflection...? God looking back at God? Too radical?

Finding sacred patterns (that exist everywhere) is one clue. The fish swim their dance, humans build (and walk) elaborate labyrinths. Spirals, circles turning in on themselves. Time, as we measure it, has been trial (and error). Always.

Practice. It's also about practice. Getting it, learning it, having it be second nature. Like a repeating pattern in a great tapestry. If our first nature is to be like God—to reflect who and/what God is... then why do we keep falling so short of who we think God is? Maybe the mirror is distorted, like the fun house mirrors at the circus. Maybe our idea of who God is is distorted. Oops... too radical?

Our church has elected its first woman presiding bishop. Wahoo! This decision appears to have been a huge surprise for some. Our community saw it coming, I think. But then we know her; she's one of our bishop visitors.

She, like God, has risen from the ranks of turmoil and dissension: a vital, creating, reconciling force that finds power, rejuvenation— in the stillpoint of the void. She pauses, considers her answer to some thorny question before she speaks, and then blows us away with her wisdom. God speed, Katherine.