Pictures of the Divine (a poem)

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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 

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