Pictures of the Divine (a poem)

Pictures of the divine

on yellowed paper

memorialized in faded colors

with edges curled by the passage of time

hang proudly on display

an act of religious devotion

iconic imaginings 

     of how god should be

unchangeable

unreachable

distant

detached 

     save through

          special knowledge, 

          holy practices,

          pietistic incantations,

          firstborn sacrifices,

          wishful thinking,

          sincere prayers

     all towers of vanity

     babelonic efforts to touch the sky. 

Divinity cannot be created 

comfortably cast in our own image.

Beyond imagination,

the sacred is realized,

a God of 

singularity 

within multiplicity

beckoning all toward

          radical inclusion,

          unrelenting mercy,

          steadfast love,

          unending life,

          eternal covenant 

               of begin again;

all life is designed to be

a reflection of

this one divinity.

  — bshivers