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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>I Believe In God, Under Any Name<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Marcia J. Wick, The Write Sisters<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>August 2019<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Word Count: 537<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Note: Religious subject matter not intended to offend; intended to include all believers.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Yes, I believe in God. I believe in God under any and all names. I believe in God as Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh, Buddha, Krishna, Abraham, the Dalai Lama, and Allah. I believe God was manifested in Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandala, Gandhi, and John Lennon. I believe God performs miracles through the touching hands of teachers, doctors, and parents every day. I believe I hear God’s words on the radio and television - in the cries of children torn from the arms of loving parents, in the screams of wounded soldiers paying the price of politics, in the pleas of women whose bodies are controlled by others, and in the desperate petitions of the homeless and oppressed. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I believe God has no gender, as that is a characteristic assigned to humans and animals. God is a He/She/It, none of the above or all of the above, as She/He/It/is inclined to “be.” Being God, after all, It/He/She wouldn’t be limited in any way, shape, or form, would She/It/He? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>God can make his presence known any time God chooses. God can reach people in the desert or on a mountain top. God can touch urban dwellers or cave dwellers; Black or White or Asian; at any point in time - past, present, or future; on any continent, in any hemisphere, on any planet, in any universe, or in a galaxy far, far away that perhaps He/She/It hasn’t even created yet.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I believe that God existed before humankind, dinosaurs, bacteria, or cockroaches on this planet we call Earth. I believe that God will exist after the extinction of life as we know it. I believe God isn’t bound by man, to only one group of people at one moment in time. God created man. God created time. God caused the Big Bang. Before that, all space and time was God. After that, all space and time is God.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I believe in life after death, in life before death, in life that may take any form. Like water molecules seamlessly connected, we’ll move in synchronicity through space and time; we’ll flow together as an endless river through the veins of God.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I believe in the power of prayer. I pray to God regularly. I pray in the Catholic church and the Jewish synagogue. I pray when I’m walking with my Guide Dog. I pray when forest fires explode. I pray in thanks and gratitude, supplication and fear. I pray alone in silence, and loudly among thousands at the Women’s March when I chant, “Immigrants are welcome here!” I pray that I will have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. I pray to anyone and everyone who will listen, hedging my bets.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>God isn’t “yours” or mine.” God isn’t something we can claim to own . God doesn’t belong to the Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists or Jews; God doesn’t exclude the agnostics, atheists, or innocents. God doesn’t give one of us priority over another – He/She/It has a boundless heart big enough for all life throughout space and time, forever and ever, Amen.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal># # #<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>