[ Setting: A wild mountain stream surrounded by a magnificent forest. ]
SYLVIA: This is so strange. My last memory was lying on my death bed, then all of a sudden you were speaking with us. During my illness (I had a brain tumor) I did have some hallucinations, but I could usually tell what was real and what was not, at least I thought I could. But you said I did die; so am I really speaking with an angel?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, you left that damaged body behind. Corporeal death is an abrupt transition and this strange feeling is just the first of many to come. So let’s talk awhile. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
SYLVIA: I was in the last quarter of my first year at college when I received my diagnosis. I had been having headaches and I could not concentrate on my studies. I had not decided on a major so I was taking the basic classes and one really cool philosophy course. Then everything changed.
I was happy I could spend my last days with my parents. I was closer to them than most kids my age, maybe because I was an only child. You know, that reminds me, there is something I would like to ask. You did say we could ask you questions?
ALLEGENTIA: Anything at all.
SYLVIA: Mom and Dad were full of pithy sayings. One in particular they were fond of, but I never gave it much thought until recently was, “It’s all perfect in the present; you just need to get out of the way.” Like all children I wanted to do what my parents wanted. And like all adolescents I wanted to rebel against what they believed. But then that philosophy class (and, of course, my “imminent demise”) got me thinking about what I really believed. So I figured I should develop my own ideas about life and reality and stuff, you know? So, how do you interpret that saying?
ALLEGENTIA: There is a way you can look at things in order to discover the truth. God is perfect, therefore everything he created is perfect, yet we find ourselves in a state in which we are perfecting, a circumstance in which we gain knowledge and wisdom and insight. We are all growing.
SYLVIA: So everything is not perfect?
ALLEGENTIA: It depends on your point of view. From God’s point of view everything is perfect. The word perfect has a connotation of completeness, and since we do not feel complete, we intuitively know we are not perfect. If we are going to use the word to describe ourselves, we have to adjust the meaning. We are finite in both time and consciousness; thus we are less than divinely perfect, yet we have the potential of being finitely perfect. When we strive and choose and act as if we are perfect there is a creative tension set up between the current self and the better self. To do the best you know, becoming better than you are, is progressive perfection in time.
“Perfect in the present” is indeed a worthy ideal to foster, but then the word present needs to be stretched to mean much more than this moment. We know it would be unwise to forget all we have learned; therefore it is only common sense to continue to include the past. And since we can think about the consequences of our actions, we should incorporate the future, as well. If we expand the present to include all time, we are creating a cosmically conscious present (past-present-future). As we act in the moment there is good reason to focus as much of the past and future into each decision we make. It’s all part of God’s plan.
SYLVIA: Do you think my parents understood it that way?
ALLEGENTIA: Could be. The quest for perfection has been on peoples’ minds since the very beginning of time. One of the first broadcasts The Father made to the universes of time was “Be you perfect, even as I am Perfect..”
SYLVIA: I guess I should not be surprised an angel would be talking about such things as God’s plans for the universe, but what does surprise me is how much sense it makes to me. I seem to be able to understand with a clarity I never felt before.
ALLEGENTIA: This is a very special time. You are a pure soul, and the soul-mind is very keen. Sharp clarity is a very common experience while you are consciously aware during this journey. And you will continue to have better focus when you are reintegrated than you had with your previous brain-mind connection.
SYLVIA: Well, it feels good. So back to what you were saying; it sounds as if you are proposing we should all be participating in God’s plan?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, the “get out of the way” part of your parent’s admonition is very passive. There is another recent saying from your planet: “God cannot steer a parked car.” It is more appropriate to work with God within this finite creation, ever knowing his ideas are always perfect and yet, also knowing, he lets us come up with our own way of following his lead. He is willing to share the blossoming of his overall plan even as we create something new – something personally unique along the way. We grow in our own distinctive ways through time and experience. Thus is the creative act of the self forever in partnership with the Source of Creativity.
All things unfolding as they should is implied in your parent’s adage. But God designed the universe for us to be actively included, as a matter of fact he is counting on it.
SYLVIA: How do we create what is needed for God’s plan to be realized?
ALLEGENTIA: You build your soul and share yourself. Soul growth is an expansion of your intellectual province plus, and primarily, an expansion of your virtues, all unified within your personality. There is a whole group of qualities we need to become to build our souls. Some of them are time bound, like loyalty. Some of them are easily taken to the extreme, like zeal. Some are impossible to take to the extreme, like harmony. Some we were born with and need to maintain, like innocence. We learn and grow by reflective thinking and prudent doing.
But we are all in it together helping each other maximize our potentials as unique persons. Short-sighted people criticize the plan by saying everyone is expected to fit into a narrow divine mold, but it is exactly the opposite. Everyone is continually expanding and growing into the eternal personality they are. You are free to make your own reality within a very open structure. And, you will find, we have been provided with everything we need to become who we want to be. In essence you are a co-creator.
SYLVIA: Okay, perfecting myself with soul growth, and then sharing who I have become, is my contribution to perfection. That sounds straightforward enough.
There was one other thing I wanted to ask you about. My friends at college liked to say, “Everything happens for a reason.” Yet I have seen so many unreasonable things.
ALLEGENTIA: These “unreasonable things” are the unfolding of unwise, less-than-perfect, freewill. The universe is able to accommodate any choice ever made or yet to be made.
Let’s try instead, “For everything that happens a reason can be found.” This is a bit different. The first statement implies the reason is dominated and directed by a Master Manipulator. And although there is an overall plan in the mind of God, he does not micromanage, nor does he ask any of his agents to interfere in the minutiae of your daily lives.
People and angels who truly love you are the closest outside influences in your life. Angels are interested in your spiritual growth. We are helpers and would not try, or even think of trying, to manipulate your freewill. All of your choices, once committed to, are yours to live with and learn from. God is the closest inside influence in your life. Listen to the divine leading and you will do well.
We are all, even beings who have lived billions of years, always marveling at the grand design – how everything works together for good. Sometimes, many times, we can be an instrument of positive change moving things a little closer to perfection. And, as we move along, this cooperation makes everything less and less chaotic. Take delight in cultivating your piece of the cosmic panorama.
SYLVIA: That was helpful, thank you. I sure am curious about what is going to happen next.
ALLEGENTIA: The next time you open your eyes, you will begin to see.