In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1.

C. S Lewis wrote somewhere: No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that ‘In the beginning God made heaven and earth.’

How, then, do we relate to such a God? Here I paraphrase some wise words from Meister Eckhart: Some people want to love God in the same way as they love a cow. You love it for the milk and the cheese and for your own profit. So do those who love God for the sake of outward riches or inward consolation. But they do not love God correctly, for they merely love their own advantage.

Meister Eckhart says we are looking for something along with God, and behaving exactly as if we were making of God a candle to look for something. When we find the things we are looking for, we throw the candle away. Whatever we seek along with God is nothing. It does not matter what it is – be it an advantage or a reward or a kind of spirituality or whatever else – we are seeking a ‘nothingness’, and for this reason we find a ‘nothingness’.

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You (Augustine).

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