Not long ago I spent a week high in the mountains in the western United States. One afternoon I sat on a rock in an alpine meadow—just below the forest's timberline—and quietly asked God questions. Sunlight filtered through the branches of the Douglas fir and mottled the grass and bright crimson wildflowers—Indian paintbrush, they're called. In the distance I could hear a stream splashing on the gray granite boulders as it ranged its way down the mountain. There were hints of tree sap and good, fresh soil scenting the air. I could see evidence of God's goodness all around me.
I like to be still, but I don't think I'd ever been that motionless and quiet in my life. Even so, there was quite a bit happening. I would present a question to God, and true, healing answers would come. "Don't fret. I made and will always keep My creation exempt from materiality and death." That was God's answer to me when I asked Him about my father, who had passed away a few months before. Even though these months had gone by, I hadn't yet been freed of grief at my most secret level. To learn that God actually maintained my father's identity exempt from materiality and death melted all concern. I could tell that I could trust that message because I felt God loving me so much as I heard it, and I was healed of all grief.
After an hour or two, I decided not only to hear God's answers but to think more deeply about the questions I should consider. Sitting so motionless, so alone with God, I heard the question "Is there more to life than just God and His expression?" The answer that came to me was that I am God's expression, reflecting the fullness of His nature. God and what God manifests is all that exists. I looked up and felt the warm breeze on my face, and recognized that all of the good behind what I was seeing was of God. There is an infinitely far-reaching spiritual goodness to all of God's manifestation. God isn't in matter. He's not in physical leaves and rocks. But we see evidence of the wonders of divine Life, God, in the good of every small detail.
