The names of God

We went to the outlet mall to shop for the next semester's clothing. We went to the usual store he likes to buy his work shirts and pants at. As he looks through the color options, he notices that the pants he usually buys have a new style name. They are the same, but the name is different. He is puzzled. After coming to terms with the change, he, of course, decided it didn't matter. The pants fit. The name didn't matter.

They fit. The name doesn't matter, I kept thinking. That's right. It is not the name, but the experience that matters. Just as God has many names–and many faces, and many languages, and many ways in which he communicates with us, ways in which we relate and understand. Our relationship with God (or Source, Spirit, The Divine, Krishna, Christ Consciousness, The Universe, The Tao, Buddha, Brahma, Father, Allah, Holy Spirit, Creator or any other name by which we call who or what we believe in) is very personal. He (or she) comes to us in ways we can recognize him with no imposition, relating to us as we open and will ourselves to the relationship.

There's not a one-size-fit-all truth and what we call something or someone does not change their essence. It is our experience that is relevant–how we love, forgive, enjoy, have compassion, encounter life and, ultimately, find comfort, belonging and each other, that sense of oneness that eludes us in the day-to-day grind. This is what matters.

I am still thinking...Oneness…that's another good name.

Photo from vi.sualize.us.