A Free People
Long, long ago, the Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. They were forced to make bricks out of straw and mud for the Egyptian Pharaoh (the king) for the large pyramids and monuments he was building. They worked hard and long and the pharaoh’s soldiers were very cruel to them. A man called Moses heard a voice speak to him from a burning bush. The voice told him to go to the pharaoh and tell him that God said he was to free the Hebrews and let them leave Egypt.
Many times, Moses went to the pharaoh.Every time, the pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave. And every time, he went back on his word.Many plagues–storms, blood, hailstones, frogs,wild animals–befell the Egyptians and with each plague, the pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave. Then when the storm or the terrible happening was over, he changed his mind again.
Finally, Moses told the pharaoh that if he did not let the Hebrews go, a tenth plague would happen to the Egyptians and it would be the worst of all. An angel of death would come and kill all the first-born children of the Egyptians.The pharaoh was frightened and said that the Hebrews could leave Egypt.
Moses told the Hebrews to kill a lamb and paint some of its blood on the doorposts of their homes. When the Angel of Death came, it would pass over the homes whose doorposts were painted with blood and their children would not be killed. The Hebrews began to make bread for their journey, but before the bread had time to rise, they started off, for they were afraid the pharaoh would change his mind again and not let them go.
All of the Hebrews followed Moses. They walked to the edge of the Red Sea, and there a great miracle happened. The waters spread apart so that the Hebrews could pass through to the other side. The pharaoh did change his mind,and sent his soldiers after them. But when the soldiers reached the sea, the waters closed over again. The Hebrews were safe! They sang songs of joy. They were free once again! Many years later, the Hebrews came to be called Jews.
Each year the Jews celebrate the holiday of Passover to remember the time when they became a free people. This is the special ceremony of the Passover Seder.
The Gift of Color
This story is new. It was written for you.
Imagine a time long ago when things were just getting started. The first flowers were blooming; the first birds were building their nests high in the branches of sheltering trees; girls and boys, men and women setting up their first families and homes. These are the things that you might have seen if it wasn’t so dark. No one could see, because it was the first night, and the first day hadn’t happened yet.
The First People could hear the wind whining in the trees, and the birds twittering and whistling. It was so dark they couldn’t see anything, but the First People were too busy to worry about the dark. They were thinking about all the first things they would need to live beyond that first night. The First People were working so hard that they really didn’t care that they couldn’t see each other in the dark. As they spoke, they would turn their bodies toward sounds of voices that didn’t have faces.
When the sun finally rose on that first morning, the whole world looked like it was made of glass. [Show the cellophane wrap on the frame.] One by one the First People realized they still couldn’t see anything. Their faces and muscles and bones were all clear. Light passed straight through their bodies to the clear ground below. The sky was clear. The trees, birds, flowers, and rocks were all as clear as glass.
Finally, one of the First Children broke the silence. "I have eyes to see with," the child cried. "But there’s nothing to see" One of the adults tried to comfort the child, but the First People were all sad.
"What will we do?" one woman said. "Last night we planned to gather the tall grass that rustles in the breeze. We planned to bend and fold, and twist and tie that grass to make the first baskets. Then, we were going to go down to the river, which we hear moving past us, to collect baskets full of water, so all the First People could have a drink."
" Oh-hh-hh," moaned a thirsty man. "How will you find the grass if you can’t see it’ How will you know if you’ve made a tight basket if you can’t see your work? How will you find your way to the water and back?"
The First People were very creative and solved all these problems, one by one. Holding hands, they formed a human chain to make a trail to the tall grass. They took small, careful steps, never knowing when clear grass might give way to clear rocks or clear tree stumps. Once the human chain was finally in place, the person on the end felt carefully for one long, thick blade of grass, pulled it out of the ground and passed it to the next person, who passed it to the next, until the blade of grass reached the last person in line. [You could have the children close their eyes and pass a long blade of grass around the circle.]
After the grass had been plucked, several First People started weaving baskets, feeling their work with their fingers to find even the tiniest holes that would let water out. Finally they had a few baskets that could hold water. Once again all the First People formed a human chain and worked their way to the river. When a basket was passed to the last man in line, he dipped it carefully into the river he couldn’t see and pulled it up full of water. The First People breathed a sigh of relief when the man shouted, "It’s holding! It’s holding! And so it was that the First People shared their first drink of water.
The First People had been hard at work all day, and they’d only accomplished one thing–getting a drink! Although the First People had plenty to drink, they had nothing to eat, and they all went to sleep hungry.
When the sun came up again, nothing had changed, except the First People were more worried about how to take care of themselves in a world where nothing could be seen. As the day passed, the First Women and Men planned ways to collect food. A First Child who was playing found something hard–a rock, a crystal-clear rock. She tossed the rock up in the air and it twinkled in the sun. The child held it up for her mother to see. Stretching out her clear arm, with the clear rock in her clear hand, something happened. Stripes of something not-clear showed on her face and reflected on the ground below. [Demonstrate with a prism.]
When the girl’s mother saw the stripes of something not-clear, she called the others around. The First People were excited as they felt on the ground for more clear stones that would make those seven wonderful not-clear stripes. The girl’s mother decided to name the stripes. Pointing to each in turn she called out, "Red! Orange! Yellow! Green! Blue! Indigo! Violet! " The First People played with the stripes until the sun set.
On the third morning, a gentle rain fell. The First People set out their baskets to catch the rain and talked again about how to gather food. They almost didn’t notice when the rain stopped and the sun came out. Looking up, the First People saw above them the same not-clear stripes they had played with the day before: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. As the sun grew brighter, the stripes glowed stronger.
Suddenly one man said, "What if we take our baskets and form a line to the stripes? Can we bring the red, orange, and yellow home? Can we pass green and blue, indigo and violet down the line, and use the stripes to make our world not-clear?"
No one knew the answers, but everyone was willing to try. They formed a human chain so long it led straight to the stripes in the sky. At the head of the line was the woman who had named the stripes. She filled the baskets and passed them back down the line. As she turned with the last basket full of violet, the First People gasped. All the beautiful colors were dripping out of the baskets! But the groans soon turned to cheers, for when the very first drop fell to the earth, it colored a flower a brilliant shade of red. The next drop caught a bird’s wing in flight. The whole world came alive in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Trees appeared, and blue and yellow mingled to color the grasses green.
The First People were so busy watching their world change that they almost forgot that they were still as clear as glass. Suddenly a man tossed his basket of indigo high over-head and ran down the line of First People to await the shower of color below. Others followed his lead. Soon all the First People were playing with the colors falling from the sky. They rolled in the green grass and hugged gray tree trunks. They chased orange butter- flies and marveled at purple flowers. All the colors were still quite wet, and a bit of each rubbed off on everybody. When the colors finally dried, the First People found that they were all different colors. Some were warm, dark brown like the earth. Others were the color of honey, or shades of rose and burnished bronze mingled together. Some were pink all over, and others were touched by the yellow of the sun and golden buttercups.
They were thankful for this blessing of color. Now they could see the color of ripe apples and the blush of juicy peaches, and gather good food to eat. They could see the river run, birds fly, and fish swim. They could walk with their heads held high, their eyes seeking the best path. And they could learn from everything they could see.
When they looked at each other and saw all the beautiful colors of the First People, they were especially happy, and never wanted to be in a world without color again.
God is Like a Father
As Jesus was growing up he Iearned many things about God. He learned that God cared about what happened to people and he learned that God wanted people to care about each other. He also learned that he could talk with God and when he talked to God he called him Father. After Jesus was grown he traveled around the countryside, meeting many people and telling them how God wanted them to care for each other.
One time a large group of people gathered around Jesus and one of them came forward and said, "Jesus, I want to do the things that God wants me to do but sometimes it is hard to know what I am supposed to do. God has given us many rules to follow like: don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t hurt others. But sometimes it’s hard to remember all the rules. Can you tell me an easy way to remember what God wants me to do?" So Jesus spoke to God in the following way, "Father, one of your children wants to know a way to remember all the things you want your people to do. What shall I tell them?"
Then God answered, "Tell them, ‘All those rules really mean one simple thing: Love each other." And so that was what Jesus told them.
But one of the people said to Jesus, "Must we love everybody, even people who are different from us?" Jesus spoke to God again, "Father, they want to know if they must love people who are different."
And God answered, "Tell them, ‘Every one of you is different and special but you are all my children and I love each one of you and I want you to love each other,"’ And so that was what Jesus told them.
The people who came to talk with Jesus noticed that he talked to God. They asked him to teach them how to talk with God. So Jesus spoke to God again and said, "Father, your children want to know how to talk with you. What shall I tell them?"
God then answered, "Tell them to talk with me in prayer." And so that was what Jesus did. He taught the people a prayer like the following:
Father, blessed is your name
May we learn to love each other
May a world of love come to be.
Give us this day the things we need
And forgive us for the wrong things we do
As we will forgive others.
Keep us safe from evil.
Amen.
Background for "Hide and Seek with God"
Game playing is not only fun for children, it is one of the ways they learn all sorts of things. Adults continue to practice skills and find enjoyment in games, also. Especially popular are games in which something is hidden and the goal is to find it. From peek-a-boo to mystery weekends, it is clear that our love of searching for something hidden is more than just a game. Our normal curiosity about things and life’s way of always providing something new for us to figure out, combine to make the metaphor of hide and seek inherently meaningful to us.
At times, it can seem as though the purpose of our being here on earth is for us to search for answers to the hidden mysteries of life. It can seem as though a divine power created a world full of paradoxes and then put us here, without explanation, leaving us to try to figure it all out. Another way of explaining this feeling that life is something of a game is expressed by Alan Watts in his book entitled The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. In this book, Watts works with the following Hindu concepts: that all is ultimately Brahman or God; that our lack of understanding this is because of the magic of maya; and that figuring it out is lila, a playful game. He likens the game to Hide and Seek in which God, who is all, hides by pretending to be all the various things in the world including each one of us. However, Watts says, "when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self, the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever."
Religions, other than Hinduism, in varying ways, also have a sense of God as hidden. In Islam one of the ninety nine names of God is The Hidden; but for Muslims, God is totally other and ultimately unknowable. Christian belief presumes that God, though originally concealed, finally becomes known through God’s own revelation. In general, the emphasis is on God’s revealing rather than on human discovery. Paul, however does write in Acts 17: 26, "From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and [God] allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for [God] and find [God] though indeed [God] is not far from each one of us. For ‘In [God] we live and move and have our being;’ …"
Where one might find God differs from religion to religion; in fact, answers to this question may well be a part of what differentiates one religion from another. Jews might say they find God in historical actions of freedom and justice; Christians might say God is revealed in the love found in the life and person of Jesus; and Muslims might say they find the one God in the words of the Quran. In Alan Watts’ story and~ in the story in this curriculum God is found in everything that is: earth and sky; light and dark; people’s caring actions; within ourselves; and even in the not knowing. For if God is a symbol for ultimate reality, values, and mystery,one’s unknowing can be considered one’s ultimate reality.
This metaphor in which God hides and humans search is supported by the UU Principle which urges us to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We search in all of our Sources: our own experience, the `words and deeds of prophetic women and men,wisdom from the world religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, and humanist teachings.
What is God?
Goal:
To introduce the idea that people find God in many different places.
Preparation: Read Background for “Hide and Seek with God”
Activities:
Introduce the story:
In our Unitarian Universalist church people have many different ideas about God. For some people God is what’s really real, for some God is what’s most important, and for some God is what’s most mysterious. But there are also some UUs who have ideas about what’s most real and most important and most mysterious but they don’t call those things God. They use other words, like Universe, Life, or Love. In our church we each decide for ourselves which words to use and what we believe.
The stories I’m going to read were written to help kids decide for themselves what they thing about God. Here’s the first one.
Discuss:
Would you want to play Hide and Seek with God? Would it be fun? Would it be scary?
If you were playing the game, where would you look? What do you think God might look like?
One girl found mysterious things but she wasn’t’ sure she wanted to call them God. Do you ever feel this way?
Draw a picture of what you think God looks like. Hide your pictures around the room and play “hot” and “cold” to find them – telling the finder they’re getting hotter if they’re getting closer to it and colder if they’re getting further away.
God is in Each One of Us
Once there was a boy named Svetaketu (Svayta-kaytu) who went away to school to learn all about God. When he came back home his father could see that although he had learned many things there were still some things, some very important things, that he did not yet understand. When his father told him that there was more for him to learn, Svetaketu said, "Please, Father teach me," and his father said, "So be it, my son."
Svetaketu’s father said, "Go bring me a fig from that large tree over there." Svetaketu ran to pluck a fig and brought it to his father saying, "Here it is, sir." Then his father said, "Cut it in two," and Svetaketu cut the fig in two saying, "I have done as you asked." Then his father said, "What do you see in the fig?," and Svetaketu answered, "All these little tiny seeds." Then Svetaketu’s father said, "Cut one of the tiny seeds in two," and Svetaketu did. Svetaketu’s father then asked, "What do you see now?," and Svetaketu answered, "Nothing at all."
Then Svetaketu’s father said, "But, my son, I want you to know that even though you can’t see it, there is an unseen power in that seed which can grow such a seed into a great tree like the one over there. And, Svetaketu, the unseen power that is in the seed is the same power that is in the whole world. That power is God. That power is Spirit and God’s spirit-power is in you, too, Svetaketu."
When Svetaketu heard his father’s words he felt very small and very big to think that he asked his father to teach him more about the spirit-power of God that was in him.
And so his father did and Svetaketu learned that even though this spirit-power is unseen by our ordinary eyes, we can see it with our inner eyes. It is there in such mysteries as growing aod loving.
And that spirit-power is in each one of us. It is in everyone here at church. It is in everyone in (your town or area). It is in everyone in our (state). It is in everyone in our (country). It is in each and everyone in the whole world.
Hide and Seek with God
Once upon a time God said, "I’m bored because I don’t have anything to do. I want to play with my friends." And because God is God, as soon as the words were spoken God’s friends were there. When God saw them all gathered, God said, "I’ve been bored because I haven’t had anything to do. Let’s play something." "Good idea," said God’s friends, "What shall we play?" God thought for a minute and then said, "I know, let’s play hide and seek!" The friends all said, "Yeay", for they knew that hide and seek with God was always exciting and different because God was the one who hid and God always thought of wonderful places to hide.
So God’s friends closed their eyes tight and they counted to ten. When they opened their eyes God wasn’t there anymore. So they all went off to look for God.
One friend decided to look close.upon the earth and soon came to a meadow. As he was searching, he stopped to admire the tender new sprouts of green grass pushing their way up toward the sun. As he bent over to look more closely at the tender green, he realized there was something special and amazing and wonderful about it. So he jumped up and ran back to home base, calling out, "I found God! God is green and growing. I found God in the grass"
Another one of God’s friends decided to look for God m the night. She watched the sun go down, and the work-a-day noises stop, and the lights in the houses go out. As it got darker and as the peaceful night wrapped itself around her, she listened very hard, and then she realized there was something special and amazing and wonderful about it. And when it was so still that she could see and hear nothing at all, she suddenly jumped up and ran to home base, calling out, "I found God! God is dark and peaceful. I found God in the night!"
A third friend looked upon the earth and he felt the mystery of the grass growing toward the sun. He stayed and watched the night on and he felt the mystery of the darkness and the stars. He thought to himself, "These mysteries are special and amazing and wonderful". But when he finally came back to home base, he said, "I found wonderful mysteries but I’m not sure if I want to call them God."
A fourth friend decided to look for God where people were. He joined a group of people going home from work and went with them into the store where they bought food. He went with them back out on the street as they started for their homes. He was with them when someone came up and said, "Please, I am very hungry. Could you share a little food with me?" The people readily agreed and as he watched,~he realized there was something special and amazing and wonderful about those people and he suddenly turned around and ran to home base, calling out, "I found God! God is love and sharing. I found God in people who care for others"
Finally, two more of God’s friends, a boy and a girl, decided to look for God together. After a time, they came to a house and they decided to look for God in the house. In the house they saw a room and they looked for God in the room. And in the room they saw a mirror and they looked for God in the mirror. As they looked into the mirror they realized there was something special and amazing and wonderful being reflected in it and they suddenly turned around and ran to home base, calling out, "We found God! We found God in us"
At this God appeared again and said, "I had so much fun! Weren’t those good hiding places? Some of you found me, others weren’t sure, and others are still looking. That’s OK because the most important thing is just to play the game. Let’s do it again because I’m sure I can think of some other good hiding places." And they all called out, "Olly, olly, oxen free, free, free," and the game started all over again.
Background for “The Mystery of God”
We are born, and we wonder, were we somewhere before? If we were, where were we? We live our lives, and we wonder what we are meant to do? Is there a special purpose for our lives? We die, and we wonder why? Will we live on in some way after death? These are the questions that all people ask at some time or another in their lives. These are the questions that bring us up against the edge of any certainty; on the other side of that brink lies mystery. Religions are born out of the questions; God is born out of the mystery.
Whatever concepts of God are believed, whatever myths and symbols image God, all religions include mystery as an attribute of God. It is a common belief that God is something totally other, something utterly unknowable for humans, something ineffable. Rudolf Otto, explains this phenomenon in The Idea of the Holy, “The truly ‘mysterious’ object is beyond our apprehension and comprehension, not only because our knowledge has certain irremovable limits, but because in it we come upon somethng inherently ‘wholly other’, whose kind and character are incommensurable with our own,..” Yet, at.the same time, those who accept that God is totally unknowable usually also attempt to understand what God is through some earthly or human metaphors. This paradox, of not knowing and yet knowing, is at the heart of religion, in fact it is at the heart of life.
Scientists, too, are finding that they come up against the same kind of mystery at the edges of their knowledge. They are always pushing those edges for new understandings but as soon as they make a new discovery, they find new puzzles to solve. The threshold of knowledge only moves out a little; the mystery always remains on the other side. Scientists who study the microcosm also discover a paradox similar to one in which God can’t be known but is known. Sub-atomic particles can be described only from one viewpoint at a time; they can never be totally known all at once. The underlying stuff of life seems to contain a paradox, a mystery. This ultimate mystery is a basic part of the meaning of the word “God”. It is no wonder that God as mystery is common to all religions.
The Native Americans of the Plains call God, Wakan Tanka, the Great Mysterious. The Medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart described God as “A mystery behind mystery, a mystery within mystery that no light has ever penetrated.” In the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says of himself, “I am the silence of mysteries”. The Tao Te Ching says, “The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.” (translation by Stephen Mitchell) One of the ninety nine names of God in Islam is The Hidden. Zen Buddhist koans and other exercises attempt to make an experience of the paradox and mystery possible.
Most people love a mystery. Humans are curious creatuies and if there is something hidden, they want to find it. If there is something wrapped up, they want to open it. If there is a mystery, they want to solve it. Children are especially intrigued by mysteries. The younger children in this age group, though curious, will accept mysteries at face value since their thinking processes allow them to be comfortable with them. The older children are beginning to analyze in a more rational way and they may push for more rational answers. We wish to honor the new mental abilities of these children, yet it is important and possible for them to consciously carry along their earlier intuitive understanding of the underlying mystery.
An understanding that mystery is a the heart of life is affirmed by our Unitarian Universalist principles which encourage us to spiritual growth and urge us to a free and responsible search for truth. It is also promoted by our use of the source, direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder.
The Mystery of God
One time when the children were playing "Hide and Seek with God" one of them found God hiding in the wind and another found God hiding in some beautiful music and several found God hiding in people who were building a house for people with no home but the game was over they began to want something different. One of the children said, "We find God in all these different places but I don’t want to see just a part of God. I want to see all of God, all at once!" The other children agreed, and they called to God saying, "God, the next time you hide and we find you we want to find all of you, all at once. We want to see everything."
Surprised to hear their request, God said to them, "That is not as easy as you might think. Let me think about it for a little while." So God thought, "They don’t know yet that even though they can know some things about me, they can never know all of me, all at once. Why, even I don’t know all of me, all at once. Sometimes, I even surprise myself. How can I help them to understand this?" and God, thought and thought some more.
After a while God got an idea and then called to the children saying, "All right, I will hide again and this time when you find me, you will find all of me, all at once but be prepared for a surprise!" The children jumped up and down they were so excited. One said, "I think God will be something like the sky at night, with all kinds of shining lights." And another said, "I think God will be like the earth with everything growing out of it." And a third child said, "Maybe God will be like a person you can talk to." But one child reminded them, "Don’t forget God said, Be prepared for a surprise so maybe God won’t be like any of those things."
The God said, "I’m ready to hide now. Close your eyes and count to ten." So the children did and then they went to seek God, this time staying together. They looked and looked but didn’t find anything for quite a while, until finally they discovered a box all wrapped up like a present. They looked at each other and said, "Could this be God?" "Should we open it?" and finally they agreed that they should. Very carefully they took off the ribbon, and very carefully they removed the paper and then very carefully they opened the box and peeked inside.
What they saw did surprise them! It looked like lots and lots of puzzle pieces. Then they heard God say, "Put me together and then you will see all of me, all at once." So the children began to work and everyone helped. There was a piece that was a loving heart and they started with that. Next to it fitted a piece that was a peaceful, quiet feeling and next to that fitted a family sharing with others. Once they got the first pieces going, it became easier and they began to work faster. They found where the new growth of spring went and where a powerful thunder storm went. And they did find a person and the sky and the earth though they were only parts. They worked and worked, putting in more and more of the pieces until they had put in a great number of the pieces. Then they looked to see what pieces they had left and they were really surprised. The pieces that were left were empty. They fit in but they weren’t anything.
Then they said to God, "Is this truly all of you, all at once?" and God said, "Yes." But one child said, "But there are some pieces where we still don’t see you." "That’s true," said God. "Those pieces are where my mystery is." "Your mystery?" the children replied. ”You see," God said, "There is much of me that you can see but there is always a part of me that is a mystery. That is where my wonders and surprises come from." The children stood quietly for a few min, looking at the finished puzzle, with the places in it where the mystery was and they knew that they knew something wonderful.
Then they said to God, "Okay, I guess we’re ready to play Hide and Seek again, the old way. Will you go hide for us?" "Off I go!" said God and they knew that they were going to be surprised once again.
Background for "God is in Each One of Us"
The story of Svetaketu and his father is taken from the Hindu scriptures called the Upanisads. The word "Upanislld" means to "sit down nearby" and refers to the practice in which one who desires to learn sits down at the feet of a teacher. There are over two hundred Upanisads, written, in Sanskrit, during the 8th to the 6th century B. C. E.. This story is found in the Chandogya Upanisad (6.12) and it is part of a series of discussions between Svetaketu and his father.
The earliest Hindu scriptures are the Vedas which are hymns to the various Gods and Goddesses. In the Upanisads, Hindus begin to philosophize in a more systematic way about the universal religious questions. The concepts in the Upanisads develop toward the understanding that all of the "3306" Gods and Goddesses are in reality forms of the one God, Brahman. Furthermore, this philosophy sets forth the belief that there is in humans what is called the Atman, a spirit-power, a soul, and the Atman and Brahman are the same. In Sanskrit this is expressed in the phrase, Tat Tvam Asi, which means, That Art Thou. Most of the Svetaketu stories end with the father saying to him, "that which is the finest essence-this whole world has that as its soul. That is Reality. That is Atman (soul). That art Thou, Svetaketu." (translated by Robert Ernest Hume).
The theology of the Upanisads has been called monism, which is described in Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary as, "the view that there is only one kind of ultimate substance" or "the view that reality is one unitary organic whole with no independent parts." Another similar type of theology is panentheism, which is not the same as pantheism. Pantheism is described as meaning that all is God, whereas, panentheism preserves a sense of God’s transcendence by saying that all is in God. The Handbook of Theological Terms, says that panentheism "argues that the world is included in God’s being something as cells are included in a larger organism, although the world does not exhaust God’s being or creativity. Just as a person is both the sum of all his [or her] experiences and parts and yet more than they, so God has all of finite being as part of [God’s] being and experience but transcends it." The Hindu philosophy of the Upanisads can be interpreted in a strict way as monism, but in a more liberal way as panentheism.
At any rate, both of these viewpoints contrast with theistic beliefs in which God and humanity are totally separate entities and where the ultimate values ascribed to God are not applicable to people. A theology based on a belief of "That art Thou," on the other hand, must apply ultimate worth to humans just as it does to God. Therefore, the stories of the Upanisads, support the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, one of our Unitarian Universalist principles. They also support the principle which urges respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part and the source of our own direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder.
Children who are on the younger side of the five to seven developmental shift may intuitively feel quite comfortable with the concept that God is in us and we are in God since their thinking isfluid and magical. Girls and boys who are developmentally older and are beginning to classify and analyze may want to examine these ideas in a more rational way. Invite both viewpoints in theconversation and encourage the children to share their differing ideas with each other.
The "Namaste" greeting is used in everyday conversations in India and Nepal and by those who study Yoga. When one says, "Namaste," to another, one is speaking from and to the place in each of us where the spirit dwells.
