This morning I was reading through the book of Hebrews in the Second Testament. Chapter 11 in that book contains some enlightening stories of faithful people in First Testament history. At the end of the chapter the following was recorded, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” This was written to show that we are interconnected with those who have gone before us. In a real way, we are people who share in the lives and faiths of all of humanity. Walt Whitman, a poet that I have only recently come to admire and appreciate, wrote the following:
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future,
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies thought they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processed, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.
“A vast similitude interlocks all…” How true. We are all interrelated by virtue of a common heritage. Whether one believes in a single creative act of Yahweh Elohim, or the natural progression of evolution, we all share a common Source. Perhaps, it would do all of creation a great service if we humans started to live like parts, siblings, of the Whole rather than the masters.