Where will you look?

TWINKIES AND GODby Jim Nasium

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He really wanted to meet God a lot and so he did some research on the subject of where God lives, and he thought that he knew just where God Lived. The little boy made plans to go to where he thought God Lived. He knew it was gonna be a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his book bag with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer, and he started off on his journey to find out if he did know where God lived, or not.

When he had walked about thirty blocks, he was tired. He needed a rest, and so he walked over to the park across the street and he sat down on a park bench. Then he met an old woman who was aimlessly walking round the park. She sat down on the bench next to him and started staring at some pigeons. The boy sat there, next to her and opened his book bag. He was about to take a drink of his root beer and eat a twinkie, when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie.

She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again, she smiled at him.

The boy was delighted that the woman was very happy now.  They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, watching the squirrels and birds and eating twinkies, drinking root beer...

The Twinkies and Root Beer were gone and as it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was, and how late it had become, and so he got up to leave. Before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy got back home and opened the door to his house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"

He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I''ve ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face, and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." But before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

I was asked today if there was a problem with my blog, and had it suggested that I would need to check if I was actually sending out the message.  After a minute or so I realized that the reason the person was not receiving the blog was because they mistakenly thought I had written something that they had missed.  Sadly they haven't missed a thing as I have not posted any articles in quite some time.  There are several works in progress but unfortunately they are incomplete.  

However, on the return home from an afternoon movie I caught some lyrics of a song on the radio.  I have no idea who was singing but it basically asked the question where do I find God?  This triggered the memory of the story (posted above) of twinkies and God.  So the drive home was a percolation of the brain and how I might finally be inspired to write something.

Where do we seek God?   It is an important question and I think it goes hand in with another question How do we show God?  The story of Twinkies and God is a beautiful illustration reminding us that we can find and see God everywhere.  It basically requires us to look, to be in community with one another and to see the ability and beauty of a person rather than getting caught up with what we think should be a more complicated process.   The little child and the elderly person shared a bench, shared a meal and shared the presence of each other and as a result they both returned home believing that they had seen the face of God.  Likewise, we are asked to truly look at one another to share our time, a meal, a presence and in so doing the infinite love of God continues to be seen and experienced through the love that is present in that moment.

Where do you see God?  Where do you look and perhaps more importantly will others see the face of God when they have an encounter with you?