Seeing God

Where does evil come from?

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. - 3 John 11

In today's reading, John tells us that evil comes from those who have not seen God, because whoever does good comes from God.

So, where do those who do evil come from, if not from God as well?

I can understand John's thinking here.  If I have seen God, then I must know the love that is God and could not even think of doing evil to anyone.

That makes sense to me, so it could be that choosing evil is easier for someone who is not able or willing to see God in themselves or in others.

That doesn't mean that God is not present in them, for I am sure He is, since all are from God and God dwells within us in the form of His Spirit.

The secret to avoiding evil intentions, therefore, might be to practice seeing God in ourselves and in others.

That is not always easy to do, since we tend to be very critical of ourselves, and we could fall into the trap of going too farm seeing ourselves as God.

Those who see themselves as gods can do some truly heinous things.

And what can be worse than doing evil in God's name? 

Starting each day with a prayer to see God's presence in all we do that day may help us to stay on track.  And once we are on the right track, we can look for God in others as well.

Who knows?  We may wind up being able to help others see what we see in them.

More to come...