I did not sleep well on Sunday night and in exasperation I found myself getting up at 5:00 Monday morning and going downstairs. I played a little on the computer and then laid down on the sofa to read Aristotle Papanikolaou on the divine essence and energies. Nothing like a little substantive theology to put me on the snooze. And it worked. I finally nodded off. I nodded off thinking about the essence of God.
The odd thing is that I did not realize I had fallen asleep. My mind apparently kept thinking about this subject. I thought about Moses’ experience of God on Mount Sinai, a subject I had just blogged on a few days earlier. Why, I asked myself, does God tell Moses that “man shall not see me and live”? How is this connected to the Orthodox assertion that the divine essence is imparticipable? Yes, I actually was asking myself these questions in my dream.
I then noticed an electric outlet near me. I knew that this outlet connected directly to God. Well, why not, I thought. I put my finger into the outlet.
Zap!!!
At that moment two things happened simultaneously–a bright light burst upon my eyes and my upper torso jerked up off the sofa.
I immediately awakened.
My first three thoughts, in order, were:
Wow, I was sleeping!
Did I just have a stroke?
Did I just get an answer to my question about seeing the face of God?
Eclectic Orthodoxy 
I would like to reassure everyone that Fr. Aidan did not, in fact, have a stroke. So now the question remains what, exactly, was God telling him?
LikeLike
Whatever else God was telling you, the revelation undoubtedly includes an undeniable mandate to obtain a package of those plastic outlet-guards, available at Babies-R-Us.
And next time, confine yourself to participating in the energies – life-transfiguring, but less lethal!
LikeLike
LOL. I should have looked around for another outlet … one labelled “divine energies.”
LikeLike
Thus saith the Lord, “Thou shalt not stick thy finger in the electric socket.”
LikeLike