In honour of his Birthday, I begin with a quotation from Mohandas K. Gandhi about the founder of the Christian religion ...
Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to
regulate the whole of life by the eternal law of love ...
On my office wall in the space we have called home since our fire in February, I have hung a sand relief like the one to the right ... I have always like the Hindu god Ganesh ... He is playful, he is lazy, he is silly and he knows how to enjoy life. I was told when I found it, that a dancing Ganesh is good luck because when he dances everyone around is filled with laughter and joy and feels good ...
So a Dancing Ganesh occupies a prominent place on the wall in my office, I hung it so that while I'm working on something at my desk I can glance up and see him dancing alongside a West Coast Native painting of Jesus' baptism ... Together, they are a good reminder of the universality of faith, and the way in which we interpret God's presence in our lives by our own narrow perspectives, AND certainly NOT least of all - they are important reminders of the need to be open to God in the infinite and myriad of expressions that God is capable of ...
I can hear some asking - "Should a Christian Minister hang a Hindu god in his office??"
My answer to that is simply - WHY NOT ???
Ganesh is about joy and laughter and celebrating life ... what better image of a Hindu god to hang in the office of a minister in a Christian Church?? Afterall, our founder knew a thing or two about joy and laughter and celebrating life ... one must bear in mind that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine in Cana.
It wasn't just any wine, but it was the very BEST vintage ... and it wasn't at the beginning of the celebration, it was after a couple of days of partying and feasting ... With gallons of fresh wine, no doubt that party was able to continue ... and can there be any doubt that when the wine was decanted and shared, Jesus and his disciples laughed and danced and celebrated with chalices of brimming with fresh wine????
A dancing Ganesh ... a drinking Jesus ... where will it end???
Perhaps when the WHOLE world dares to live the message of LOVE carried by people like Gandhi, Jesus and countless others who know how important love really is ...
May it one day be so ... In the meantime, let's have the courage to follow Ganesh and Jesus and have the boldness to laugh and dance and be filled with JOY ...
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