Everything Matters

At Richmond Hill, this past weekend, one of the things we talked about was our individual images of God, and how they have changed over our lives.  For example, when I was a child I imagined God as an old man with a long white beard, wearing a long white robe.  He was a combination of creator, judge, grandfather and the pastor of my church.  When I was a teenager I thought of Jesus in the musical "Godspell," roaming around New York City's Central Park with his disciples and telling parables.  When I was a young adult I didn't think about him much at all.  And now I no longer think of him as an image at all.  He is all around me.  He is the fresh breeze that touches my face when I take a walk.  He is the warm feeling of sunlight.  He is the sound of leaves rustling when a storm is brewing.  He is in the flame of the candle that sits on my table when I pray and listen, early in the morning.

After dinner on Saturday, we watched a movie entitled "The Shack."  I was absolutely delighted, because I have read William P. Young's novel of the same name several times -- it's one of my favorites.  Here's a short blurb that describes it:

"Mackenzie Phillips’s daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon. What he finds there will change his life forever."

This description makes you think that the story will be very sad and dark, but I promise you that it isn't that at all.  Instead, it's a magical and uplifting story that will change your "image of God" forever.

One of the final things said by a major character in the movie (and the novel) remains with me today:  "If anything matters, everything matters."   It sounds so profound to me that I looked on the Internet to see if he borrowed it from someone else -- apparently not.  It resonates with me, reminds me of the "butterfly effect," a term coined by Edward Lorenz to describe the part of chaos theory where one small action can have a significant effect on larger actions.  

Everything matters.  Everyone matters.  We never know which action or which words will have an effect on something else, someone else, somewhere else.  Because everyone matters, everything we do is important in some way.  Every time we reach out with a smile, a kind word or a hug, we touch someone else's life and the world changes.  Nothing will ever be the same again.....