Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D.
Recently, I read a very interesting essay titled “An Interview with God.” The author is unknown, but I believe it could have been written by any of us.
“Come in,” God said. “So, you would like to interview me?” “If you have the time,” I said. God smiled and said, “My time is eternity and is enough to do everything. What question do you have in mind to ask me?”
“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered, “That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived.”
God took my hand, and we were silent for a while, and then I asked, “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”
God replied with a smile:
“To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is let themselves be loved. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group. To learn that the rich person is not the one who has the most, but one who needs the least. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn that there are persons who love them dearly but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings. To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them and likes them anyway. To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they should forgive themselves.”
I sat there a while enjoying the moment. I thanked God for the time and all that God has done for me and my family, and God replied, “Anytime. I’m here 24 hours a day. All you need do is ask for me, and I’ll answer.”
This story made me think about the new year we just ushered in, and I realized that God is not just here 24/7 but 365 as well and for that matter for all time, past, present, and future. It helped me realize that we do have to be thankful for every moment for every person we meet and every episode in the many chapters in our lives.
Perhaps we should be more charitable. Giving to charity and deeds of loving-kindness equal all the teachings we have received over the millennium and is the essence of what God was saying during the interview. It takes a charitable heart to understand relationships and connections. It takes loving-kindness to awaken in us the ability to search for fulfillment.
Charity is given to the living, but deeds of loving-kindness are given to the living and the dead. Charity is given to the poor, but deeds of loving-kindness are given to the poor and the rich.
Yes, a new year allows us to poise ourselves between Heaven and Earth, as we measure the success of this effort and recall our lives. We think of how we shake our shoulders and marvel as we spiritually climb Heaven’s steps into Heaven’s womb. And then we are born again and realize that we can look into a mirror and proclaim, “Now I know why I was created.”