Faith, Bambi-style

When you see God, you will.....

For those of you who do not know, I work near the center of a large town (approximately 100,000) with a state university.  Earlier this week, I went outside for a break and, looking across the 4-lane street, I observed a full-grown doe in the front yard area of another business carefully browsing on the shrubbery in the cool shade of a tree.  Looking about, there were cars and some pedestrians going by, but nobody seemed to notice this pastoral scene played out in the middle of town.  I briefly acknowledged her, to which I got a quick gaze and ear-twitch, then the hind returned to her late-afternoon snack.  Later, as I was leaving for the day, I looked over to see that our forest friend had decided to bed down under the tree, both unobserved and unconcerned.

This whole interplay makes me think of the Divine and Faith.  If Faith is our reaction to an encounter with the Divine (a working definition which encompasses Trueblood, Aquinas and Lonergan), it requires a few things which I believe explains some people and their lack of Faith.  There is a good body of evidence (and a lot of common wisdom) which says that when things are suitably outside of our expectations, humans have the tendency to edit it out of what we perceive unless it is specifically highlighted for us.  Thus, someone in a pink elephant costume can walk down the street and at least half the passers-by would not 'see' the pachyderm unless at least one person in the crowd has a suitably large and demonstrative reaction.

Where is God in this?   She's right there, nibbling on the leaves within arms reach.  Didn't you see Him?