It's All the Same God . . .

As you read the other day, on Monday I was able to spend some time at the Art Institute.  As you make your way into the museum, you have to walk through the Alsdorf Galleries - well you go through them both coming and going - and they are among the busiest in the museum because the are the main thoroughfare to get pretty much anywhere else in the museum that you might want to go. They are devoted to Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Islamic Art.   This statue of the Buddha is one of my favorites.  

It's called Buddha Shakyamuni Seated in Meditation (Dhyanamudra).  It's Indian, from the 12th Century.  You can read more about it at that link.  There is also a video that gives you a a very good view of it from many angles.  

I am always taken with representations of God.  I believe that God appears to us however we need to see and understand him.  For Buddhists, he appears as the Buddha.  To most Christians he appears as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  To Hindus he appears in a variety of faces and forms.  But I believe it's all the same God.  I realize this is not particularly Presbyterian of me.  Oh well - believing that doesn't take anything away from my own personal beliefs about Him.  I see the God of my faith in this Buddha.  God is everywhere we look - in the places we go and the people we love.  Sometimes you just have to pay a little better attention . . . 

This song is about seeing God in someone you love.  Multiple religious traditions are included, and it's one of my favorites.  I've shared it here before.  Read the subtitles as you watch . . . 

 (If you want to know what is actually going on here, find the movie and watch it.  It's a Bollywood film from 2008 called Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.  You won't regret it.)