Yesterday, I had a truly wonderful 2-hour conversation with my father. We covered God, Christ, creation, the cosmos, scripture, life, questions, faith, and more. I realized that while my ideas of God and our connection with life are indeed complicated and thought-through, it really is practiced in a simple way for me.

In closing, as I told him that our understanding of how we are united with God has to inform and feed our sense of unity with all of the earth, he asked me, “Nate, if people were to look at all that you are writing and sharing, what percentage would they find related to connection with the earth and with life… and what percentage would they find related to faith, belief, and relationship with God or Christ.”

“100 percent and 100 percent,” I said. “They cannot be separated.”

So with that, I have been reflecting on a story for weeks now… again from Anthony de Mello, from his book The Song of the Bird.

A tale from Attar of Nishapur:

The lover knocked at the door of his beloved. “Who knocks?” said the beloved from within. “It is I,” said the lover. “Go away. This house will not hold you and me.”

The rejected lover went away into the desert. There he meditated for months on end, pondering the words of the beloved. Finally he returned and knocked at the door again.

“Who knocks?”
.”It is you.”

The door was immediately opened.