August 2013 Meditation: God Laughing Out Loud by Mary E. Hunt
Below is a reading for you to meditate upon as Summer comes to a close. If you would prefer to listen to the meditation, click here.
In the beginning God enjoyed herself. She laughed out loud and laughed some more because it was good. She sat back and smiled. She clapped her hands in glee and imagined her sisters dancing.
She did nothing but enjoy and it was everything.
God knew that there was work to be done—a world to create, people to form and a whole cosmos to plan. She even glimpsed the fact that creation would include meetings and that there would be injustice to right, and still she laughed, knowing that in the end it was all about pleasure.
She explained to no one in particular that enjoyment is what she intended life to be about: pleasure is the first principle.
She knew that other would-be divinities stressed work and obligation. She reasoned quite astutely that if joy were the goal, then everyone could rest and relax, at least some of the time.
Just thinking about this made her grin.
Light years later, when creation came into being and people began to toil and sweat their way, she noticed that her first principle had been replaced by work and pain.
So she sent a reminder of her legacy. She gave it several names: celebration, recreation, fun, potluck dinners, fellowship. Some thought it was a vestige of days gone by. But God knew that it was the real thing.
She called it salvation.
Published in WATERwheel Vol. 1, No. 2 © 1998
Mary E. Hunt co-founder and co-directior of WATER
