The Divine Work

The world was created as an outflow of God’s energies. The purpose of the world is to work through the innumerable potentialities contained within God’s infinite expanse and bring out that which most fully expresses the Divine. The physical world is not the only part of the manifestation; there are other, subtler planes of existence that are just as filled with activity as this plane is. But the solidity of the physical world means that planets with fixed orbits and canyons that slowly erode rivers can be created here. Physical matter allows us to create skyscrapers that stand and don’t collapse. It allows for stable human bodies that can have sensations and acquire durable knowledge.

God works in the world to bring about his purpose. That means that everything we see in the world is part of God’s plan—governments, human relationships, the natural environment. These are all are parts of God’s plan; everything here is an expression of God. What does it mean for something to be an expression of God? Everything is a portion or an aspect of God; everything serves some function of God. For example, the military expresses God’s capacity for power and protection. God is powerful enough to defend that which is worthy of being defended. Factories express God’s capacity for production and abundance. God is endlessly generative, producing everything that is necessary to meet the needs of the world. The world of fashion expresses God’s concern with beauty and appearance and the changes that come with time.

The challenge of the world is that all of these different aspects need to be harmonized. Thus these “expressions” can also be seen as “forces” that God is working out to meet his purposes. Sometimes these forces are large and even terrifying. For example, each country can be seen to be working out a force of God. The entire economy can be seen to be the force of God in action, with each person using their capacities to increase the store of possibilities in the world. But conflicts between these forces—between governments or economic interests—can be huge and terrifying for the individual humans caught between them. Only in the widest possible view do they make sense as expressions of God.

But in our normal perception, the world is just what it is: a rock is a rock, a table is a table, and a chair is a chair. The objects of the mundane world do not appear to be charged with any particular glory or signature of their maker. Generally, the world and its objects appear mundane: there are paper clips, small mammals, glue guns, asteroids seen from telescopes, and so on. None of them inherently telegraphs the fact that they are created by God. It’s usually only in moments of extreme grandeur or beauty—such as when faced by a natural landscape or emotional passion like the love of a family member—that we can conceive of God. But God is here, working, nonetheless. Of all the things that God could create, why would he choose to create something so ordinary? It could only be that the Lord created the world because of a secret that could only be revealed through its creation.

Just what is this hidden perfection, this secret yet grand purpose that God is working to in the world? It is not possible for anyone to claim absolute or detailed knowledge of what will happen in this world; as the last few years have shown, we have little ability to know what will happen even a year or two from now. But one way of understanding it is an expression of the Divine Perfection on Earth, a perfect world created in physical matter. In the world, at a human level, this at the minimum would be a world of peace and harmony, where the issues of poverty and suffering are alleviated. The beings within this world would be perfect themselves with perfect knowledge, perfection in beauty, harmony, and expression, dwelling in a state of bliss.

But in truth, the actual contents of this world are far beyond our ability to imagine. We don’t know what specifically what the content of that perfect world might consist of. For example, in our current state most of our actions are taken with the intent of solving some problem; what would goals look like in a world where the same problems that motivated our actions cease to exist?

Rather than dwell too exactly on what that endpoint is, it’s much better to simply focus on the task at hand, which is to do our own spiritual practice, which is the most effective way of helping the Divine Will come about. This focus on individual practice isn’t just for the sake of pragmatism: it’s also because our specific visions are likely to be too mundane. When asked to provide visions of the future, our most imaginative minds have come up with the visions of science fiction, which history has shown is not a way to get accurate predictions about the future. For one who knows and loves God, the hints and intuitions we receive about the future state show us something that in its grandeur goes far beyond the efficient logistical provision of food, adequate roads and sewers, or even the most glorious architecture that has yet been seen. We don’t know exactly what the future will look like, but based on the glimmers that we do see and feel, we trust that God will not disappoint.