Finding God on the web

Some days it’s really hard to see traces of the divine in the everyday. Days when your toddler has a vomiting bug and hasn’t learned to lean over the bucket yet. When you discover head lice, not only in your children’s hair but in your own too. Or when the post arrives and you find the electricity bill has turned red, school fees are due, and your car insurance is looming.

For those days when it’s hard to see the patterns that God is tracing in your life, here are two web-based solutions. Seriously.

Picturing God is a gorgeous little website featuring photographs that capture God in the world. You can submit your own pics, or you can just go and take pleasure in some beautiful images that others have posted. Here’s the info from the website that says best what it is all about:

Where do you find God in the world around you? Do you encounter God in nature, in the people around you, in a church, in the beauty of the arts, the disciplines of science, or the mundane moments of daily life? All of these are places where we can experience God’s presence and grace. This photo blog seeks to use the visual to help us find God in all things.

Each day, we’ll share a picture that evokes the presence of the divine. Picturing God is informed by Ignatian spirituality, but we welcome seekers from all walks of life to explore the inspiring and sometimes surprising ways of encountering God in the everyday.

[Ignatian spirituality is named for the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola. It’s rooted in the conviction that God is active, personal and above all, present to us.]

Another place to drop by when your sense of the divine is tested is Other 6, a community-based website where you can post on two questions and two questions only: ‘where did you find God today?’ And ‘where do you need to find God today?’ The header for the website says,

‘Some of us find God at church on Sunday, but finding God the other six days of the week can be a puzzle. Other6 is a community dedicated to helping each other experience God at all times, in all things.’

It’s kind of a sister site to Picturing God, also coming from the Ignatian perspective. As they say, Other6 ‘is Jesuit and Catholic in its inspiration but pushes no particular agenda’.

Especially if you’re not part of a spiritual or religious community, sites like this are a rather lovely way of connecting with other people who are on the lookout for God in the world.