II. SECTION 11. What is Creation?
Lesson 322 I can give up but what was never real.
- I sacrifice but illusions; nothing more. And as illusions go, I find the gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome and in readiness to give God’s ancient messages to me. His memory abides in every gift that I receive of Him. And every dream serves only to conceal the Self, Which is God’s Only Son, the likeness of Himself, the Holy One Who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me.
- Father, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. And so I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me. What You did not give has no reality. What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear and the return of love into my mind?[1]
Video credit: https://tenor.com/view/will-and-grace-celebration-yes-dance-welcome-gif-13615242
Today is my 61st birthday, and my heart is filled with gratitude and joy for the years granted me to live. But mostly because God has called me and instead of ignoring His Call, I devote myself to Him. I sacrifice nothing more than illusions. The special relationships that have been removed from my life were not real. What I found in their place, waiting for me in happy, bright-eyed welcome are holy relationships and God’s message from before the beginning of time that He has for me. There He is in every gift that I receive from Him. The gifts that He gives me are the only ones that I really want. Always, they remind me of Him. His gifts to me do not fade away, turn to stone, or cause me pain, grief, and sorrow like the supposed gifts of the ego. Every story I make up that is not of God only serves to hide my true Self, the Son of God, the Self, which is made in God’s image, the one who abides with our Father forever, as He abides with me.
The lesson today indicates that this tiny, splintered part of Self, this mini-me as I choose to picture the ego, decided to go off and do its own thing, have its own will, leave the Kingdom of Love and all that is real and exchange it for the dream of separation. Our Father has no joy in holding captives in His Kingdom, designed by and for love. The only safe place for the splitters and the splinters, the little parts of Self which cannot content themselves with their created status, those who would be god in their own eyes, was the dream.
Inspired by a parable of Christ, the parable of Creation, separation, and the return has no sting, no condemnation, no pain, but rather assurance, salvation, atonement, a waking up to Love.
“Let them dream their dreams,” laughed our Father in certainty born of Love. “Let them build their dream kingdoms and have their dream worlds. We will put them in time where they can spin their stories and fables, myths and lies. Let them slake their desire for fear and pain, sacrifice and war, male and female, black and white, high and low in the changing tides of time. Let them fight over limited resources, devise schemes, build towers, mistake lust for love, fight for equality, race to the moon, they will get their fill. Let them to their silly warring gods and facetious factions. Let them see the Virgin in the clouds and Baby Buddha on their toast. They are my Sons, created by Love and for Love. They will miss the Us that is Me. They will come home, and there We will be, waiting for them with open arms and warm welcome.”
“But let’s make them pay,” hissed the pious Sons with perfect posture and rigid stance. “It’s not fair! They get to go and have all that fun while we stay here and play by the rules.”
“If that’s how you feel,” sighs Father God, shaking His head but still smiling. “Go! Have some fun, too, dear Sons. Get a good taste of their “fun,” but please, don’t kill any animals or shed any blood for Me. Do not deny yourself any pleasure for My sake. Do not pretend to worship Me with special “holy” days and days of fasting. There is nothing you can give Me from that dream world that means a thing to me except for your return.”
“For what would I do with such a thing that I have no part in? What possible pleasure could I take in the offerings from dirt-formed creatures having a dream? Eat and drink and be merry – when you wake up and no longer mistake your separateness for freedom, your madness for liberty, and your ego attachments for love, come home! We will celebrate for you have learned what you were meant to learn, and we are all the better for it.”
The truth of God’s certainty and love calls us out of this temporary
ego-driven world and into the real world of His Love’s creation. We share in God’s Creation. When we become aware of our eternal unity
with God, we can no longer support the fear-based religions and dogmas of the
world. God’s Love calls us home! The world we see with our physical eyes is
the upside-down serfdom, the twisted substitute for the upside-right Kingdom of
God. Here we are called to sacrifice, to
deny ourselves, to make cheesy offerings and fight unending battles over paltry
alternatives we call freedom and liberty.
We have our heroes and our patriots, our devils and traitors, our saints
and sinners, and we see them as separate and distinct. Yet God loves us all and calls us equally to
come home. Sacrifice is forever
inconceivable to our Father, Who is Love.
Let us give up dreams of fear and sacrifice and return to our Father in
Love.
[1][1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 322 I can give up but…Foundation of Inner Peace, Second Edition, p. 462.
the friar patch 