Aloha Everyone,

When I was a little girl, my parents would send me to church by myself. I joined the choir so I could sit behind the altar and watch the sun as it rose through the beautiful rosette, stained glass window. It was in those shafts of colored light that I found the presence of God.

At the time, I didn’t understand what I was feeling. I just knew it was magical, and it felt like a homecoming. When I sat behind that altar, I felt something that was definitely missing in the judgment and gossip I heard when we went to the choir room and hung up our robes, or listened to the sermons about heaven and hell.

I was the only child in the morning choir. The women suggested I join the children’s choir, but I refused. The sunlight didn’t shine through the window during the later services.

As a young girl, I saw angels, but when I told the adults in my life about them, they laughed about my imaginary friends. As children, we are so much closer to that connection to God, but then we forget.

My Hawaiian kumu (teacher) tells the story of her grandfather and the Sunday God. To me it is a reminder that that energy we call God is everywhere.

Mahealani’s grandfather had been raised in the ancient tradition of living aloha, where you live from a place of love, respect, and compassion for everyone and everything. The missionaries had come to the islands and converted many of the people to Christianity, including his sister. She kept asking him to come to church.

One day, he decided to find out about this Christian god, so he packed a lunch and walked all the way down the mountain to the church. When he arrived, the doors were locked so he knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked some more and, finally, a Japanese gardener came around the corner.

Mahealani’s grandfather asked the gardener about finding this God the Christians worshiped. The man replied he didn’t know about their god because he was a Buddhist. He told grandfather the church was only open on Sundays. Grandfather found so much peace and love connecting with the spirit of the land, living aloha, and honoring the wisdom of his ancestors that he never returned to find out more about the Sunday God.

As a young girl, I used to watch people leave church and then say unkind things about others. No matter how you find God, I think the most important thing you can do is to make practicing the presence of God be in all aspects of you life.

However you worship, enjoy sharing the love and the grace you find in the presence of God.

With love and aloha,
Susan

Angels are all around you and they certainly are angels on your shoulder!