This morning’s time of prayer and quiet, I was praying for the ladies in our Celebrate Life 12 Step Workshop, particularly as pertains to “…God, as we understood Him…”
In our light-hearted look at ourselves and our various notions, and teachings about God, we could see ourselves in the poem we read last night of the “The Blind Men and the Elephant” and their perception of the thing.
“It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.”
Each was adamant that his was the true and only explanation of what an elephant was, even tho’ each only observed one portion of that huge elephant.
This 9-verse poem is from the 1800’s by John Godfrey Saxe and is delightful as well as insightful and hopefully we benefited from both.
This morning in prayer and reflection 
I recalled the poem, the lesson on being closed minded vs open minded and this is what I envisioned for just a moment:
All of us from the Workshop standing at the elephant, each aware of only one part of him, just as the blind men had ~ but we aren’t blind.
One of the other of us invited the person on her right to move over a bit and inspect the part of the elephant she had which was the ear and, as the poem says: “…deny the fact, who can… is very like a fan…”.
How enlightening that was – she had new information to consider concerning this strange creature.
She also shared with that friend, the portion she was inspecting, which was a tusk, “…’tis mighty clear…very like a spear…”. How completely different their two experiences were – just as with the blind men, and still – it was just a glimpse of what this marvelous creature must be, but now, each of the women had an open mind and had more information and shared, in turn with one another.
The sharing of observations, and experiences…
So forth and so on… around the elephant, each learning to be open to another’s experience & information, while practicing the principle in the Set Aside Prayer ~ that whole encounter was such a delightful picture to me of how priceless our Workshop is and how necessary we are to, and for, one another.
Sharing our experience, strength and hope; respecting one another; seeking Truth, and coming to a “conscious contact” with God, and practicing these spiritual principles in all areas of our lives is what Celebrate Life 12 Step Workshop is about.
But, then, as I was writing this just now and reflecting, I thought of that Elephant – how amazing a creature an elephant really is, on so many levels. (Yes, I love NatGeoWild and the Nature channels.)
This was not just an inanimate object they were inspecting; it was an intelligent and sensitive social creature that was gentle and strong, wise and a necessary part of a diverse ecological system. Photographers, Biologists, Naturalists, Behaviorists, Ecologists, and Scientists of all sorts, have myriads of information about Elephants and yet, that doesn’t even begin to touch on the magnificence of this creature ~
~ and yet, those blind men were so busy disputing, they never got to “know” ~ as the last verse says:
“So oft in theologic wars,
The arguers I’ve seen,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prattle on about an Elephant,
not one of them has seen!”
How much more is there to know and understand of God? To understand that He is Love…?
We could never begin, to even begin to understand ~
I just remembered this from an ancient Jewish poem, written in Aramaic, later translated and set to music:
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.”
God, Help me to set aside everything I think I know,
for an open mind and a new understanding.
Let me see the Truth.