A beginning...

Welcome, fellow travellers! Thanks for making the effort to try to see the world through my eyes, even briefly.

I'm sure as this blog grows I will talk about all of my favorite subjects--teenagers, parrots, cats, marriage, and other domestic issues; bicycles, molecular biology, computers, mathematics, statistics, and other scientific or technological issues; and politics, ethics, philosophy, photography, crochet, literature, and other topics in the so-called liberal arts. But as a beginning, let me share with you a musing or two about The Big Picture.

There are many views of religion, perhaps as many as there are people to take a stance on it. I think of myself as an inclusive sort of Christian, hoping rather to find commonality with others and sources of joy than to find certainty, or justification, or superiority over others. Whether you will agree with my views or not in the end, I hope you can at least take a peek through my eyes and see the world anew.

I see God as an artist brimming with joy and enthusiasm, who has begun a work of art--an enormous tapestry--and invites us to join him in its completion. He has provided us with a canvas on which to work and the freedom to weave our lives into his creation in any design we choose. As any artist would, God hopes that we will make the effort to look at as much of the tapestry as we can see, so that we can choose to add to its value and create a beautiful work of art. But whatever creative process we choose, if we add beauty to his creation God's joy increases, and he is proud of us and our art; but if we deface the tapestry, he cannot help being disappointed--nor could any of us in his place! For there is only this one tapestry for all of us to share, and it's improvement or diminishment affects us all.

This is The Big Picture, as I see it. Next time I'll zoom in and find some smaller bit of the world to focus on through my pinhole camera...but for me, this wide-angle view is a good place to start.