The God Who Blows Bubbles

We are all born into bubbles. Whether the bubble of our mother’s tummy as we are set to come forth when the water breaks, or the bubble of the earth we find ourselves in. There is also the bubbles of our specific family, culture, country, or religious/non-religious persuasion. Those who stay inside bubbles too long are often trying to protect what that will never remain; bubbles eventually pop. Many want to leave their bubbles to explore the things outside of them, while others try to stay inside their bubble not realizing their fear of the unknown, or what was told to them to keep them in the bubble, was wrong or the only right, which holds them back from an examined and explored life. You will have to leave the garden at some point, or be kicked out of it, but you’ll also need to know why and what to do when the bubbles break. 

Only then will you realize where the garden was all along. 

Recently I was at an event where children were creating bubbles. Kids love to watch their bubbles manifest in front of them, that which was not there moments prior emerges from their breath or the airs assistance, as they then chase them, and of course, some love to pop them, while others watch to see how long the bubble will last. The wind carries these bubbles where they will and they will eventually pop. Such are those who are born of the Wind, going here and there, as people know not where they come from or where they are going. We all find ourselves in different bubbles at various points in life, and often, we only truly find ourselves outside those bubbles.

Our collective story is riddled with bubbles. We know stories of people leaving the bubbles of oppression and self-righteousness, just as we know stories of leaving bubbles of protection and guidance. One thing is for sure, if you are reading these words, you and I were born into the bubble of the earth blown by the Creator among a billion other bubbles set to the backdrop of the heavens. The invitation is that we are in this particular bubble (earth), yet we are to learn our connection to other bubbles and where they come from, while learning to be in this bubble, but not of it. The scriptures say this when one says: “We are seated with Christ in heavenly places.” Therefore, we are called, yes called, to know things outside of respective bubbles to enter into the fullness of the Wind, wherever it goes. All these bubbles will break, even if we or they, serve them for a time.

As many are afraid to leave their bubbles, others love to pop them. When a bubble pops, a curious thing is open to be realized. The bubble is gone but you are still there; God is still there too. You might then realize you are free to become all bubbles to all people; to become all things to all people in order to reveal this existential reality of being inside and outside all bubbles. Here is a funny, but real story as an example.

My son and I were travelling back from a Colorado backcountry trip as part of his initiation into becoming a young man. He is moving from the bubble of childhood into the bubble of young manhood. God blows the bubbles of both. We made our way up to Lusk, Wyoming to pitch our tent for the night. When we arrived there was loud country music echoing all over the town. I somewhat wished we had travelled further had I known the music would be playing while we were trying to sleep as I later learned there was a rodeo in town and a concert to cap it off. However, I eventually surrendered to the music because I was there, in another town's culture and bubble, and it actually began to sound good. Something inside that bubble began to stir for me. Pondering this for a few days made me realize I wanted to be a cowboy, or at least, understand some cowboy ways. I’m now writing a song called: “I Am Not A Real Cowboy, But I Want To Be.” The title speaks to those who are real cowboys, who would appreciate someone who knows they are not one but wants to genuinely learn about them, while also speaking to all those who have ever wanted to be one, even in theory. Maybe just for a night, or a season, with the sounds in the soul of country music and culture, we could be. We could identify and listen to this culture, hearing something foreign yet familiar. 

My one example invited us to step inside the bubble of country culture, of the Wyoming landscape, among others, and be a part of something one is not usually a part of. To listen. To learn. To appreciate. To see the Wind at work in places one has never been before, yet who’ve been carried there by the same Wind that blows bubbles across other genres of music, lifestyle and landscape. And when you find God there, you know the bubble is not the largest point, but something that existed there before the bubble was created, so when it pops, and you either become a cowboy or you don’t, but you realize those people have become something to you, and you have become something to those people; to all people. You learn the gift of their ways and bring your own gifts as well. It’s the universal language beginning to emerge from the universal bubble we find ourselves in. It speaks to the diverse landscape of every soul.

If we do not enter the bubbles of others, and remain inside our own, we are isolated from the Larger Story. We are locked inside something that even when it pops, we will imagine is still there, because who are we when the bubbles are gone? We won’t realize we, and God, were there before the bubble existed and after it expired. Living outdated dates us, and this is not the date we want to have, for only lovers know what dating is, and what becomes of dating bubbles. We are invited to return to the Source; to the God who blows bubbles, so we can appreciate them for what they are, and are not. Then we no longer have to say: ‘I hate to burst your bubble but…” for we allow the bubbles to be blown and burst by the Wind as to realize, God and ourselves, are still there, held inside a larger bubble of Love that cannot be broken. The transitory gives way to the Eternal, and the God who blows bubbles swallows us whole rather than spitting us out, for we are neither cold nor lukewarm, we are a part of the body of Christ; the body of Reality. 

Now we blow bubbles and pop them, for we have become like little children, understanding the kingdom, the reality, of God.

So then, let us appreciate the healthy bubbles we find ourselves in and leave the unhealthy ones that try to keep us within them, as if they could last forever. Only one thing lasts forever. That is the God who blows bubbles and the Wind that pops them. You are born of the Wind, wherever it goes, moving inside and outside the labels and definitions that keep one in bondage should you hold on to them too tightly. You are to see the bubbles of every tribe, nation, and language, with their songs and ways of life, to see where God is inside of them. This universal becoming all things to all people is the Way, Truth, and Life, for there is nothing else. It’s a narrow road for sure, but broader than all inferior roads combined. 

So as we watch bubbles form and disappear, we know where they come from and where they are going, eventually, for it is God who blows the bubbles and it is God in whose bubble we actually remain. Now we too, can join in the creation process. Like the bees cross-pollinating all kinds of flowers across all different landscapes, we form the honeycomb made up of many hexagonal bubbles leading to the honey. For all bubbles have become realized in One. 

Oh how sweet it is!

-PH