A Field Guide to God

We are Born Expecting not only food and protection from the elements, but comfort and love: to be held, touched, even spoken to, however, meaninglessly at first. That expectation of love, I would argue, is the source of our longing for God. We seek God later in life because our battered bodies and spirits remember-if only dimly, in a past obscured by lesser consolations and perhaps considerable unpleasantness-what it was like to be fully encompassed by a dependable source of sustenance, protection, and love. In longing for God's presence, we unthinkingly long for something we all once had: a fetus's creaturely confidence that it will be taken care of. When we discover God for the first time-when, even as adults, we recognize Gods presence in our lives-we are grasping at that remote memory of true happiness.