They say that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. If that is true, then why should we humans, mere mortals that we are, go up in arms over the name we use to mean God, or a Higher Power? Why does it matter if we call him a him or a her, the many or just one? What difference does it make if we call him Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, or even Zeus, for that matter?
As Unitarians, we respect all faiths, all beliefs, and all names any person who enters our churches may use to mean God. We use the differences each of us celebrates to learn more about each other. The more we learn, the less we may fear. Once knowledge is ours, what is there to fear from it? If knowledge is power, shouldn’t we continue to seek it out in order to enrich not only our lives and our spirits, but those of the people around us?
Someone once said that in creating beings who can reason and think for themselves, the universe, which is a living entity, is struggling to understand itself. Since we are all a part of the universe, we, too, should continue to seek a greater understanding of the world in which we live, and the people who inhabit it with us. After all, the more we, as living microbes of the universe, discover, the more we are helping the universe to grow in a spiritual sense. What greater gift can we give to our universe than the gift of understanding?
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What Color is God’s Skin
Lyrics written by Anonymous
“Good Night” I said to my little son
So tired out when the day was done
Then he said, as I tucked him in
“Tell me, Daddy- What color is God’s skin?”
CHORUS
What color is God’s skin? What color is God’s skin?”
I said it’s black, brown, it’s yellow. . . it is red, it is white
Every man’s the same in the good Lord’s sight.
He looked at me with his shining eyes
And then I knew I could tell no lies
He asked “Daddy, why do the different races fight
If we’re the same in the good Lord’s sight?”
CHORUS
“Son, that’s part of our suffering past
But the whole human race is learning at last
The thing we missed on the road we trod
Is walking as the daughters and the sons of God.”
