People of the Book

People of The Book
are afraid
of divination.

They are superstitious.

They are afraid that
the devil hides in cards,
moves plastic eyeballs
on Ouija boards,
flips the sticks
on the I Ching
and takes possession of
the Rune Stones.

These are literalist Christians.

What they think
they should teach you
is what they do not believe
you already know.
Their fear makes them afraid
to seek The Divine
by divining.

Yet many of these
same believers
will not hesitate
to speak of moments
when they’ve felt
spiritual guidance
in their lives
through the same
divining process.

They may even tell you
about it with tears
in their eyes
as they talk
of their own
personal experience
of mystery.

You may encounter someone
from this kindergarten
who tells how they
have opened the Bible
to a random page,

How they moved
their finger down
to a random verse
and found something
specific or timely
to their need.

For them it was
God’s spirit
moving them
to find God’s truth
for their issue
of the moment.

The Book never says
anywhere
that the dreams
You dream
must come
from The Book.

But in The Book
there are warnings
against divination,
wizards
and familiar spirits;

things and practices
that cannot
and should not
be trusted.

But those who
live by The Book
do trust and practice
spiritual divination;
written words
as spiritual communication
of God.

“But,”
they will also say to others,
As they strive
to defend The Faith,
“God doesn’t communicate
with people
in that manner
anymore”

Even their book disagrees.

Abraham’s servant requested
God’s help in knowing;
who God wanted
to become
Isaac’s future wife.

In The Story Book
Abimelech learned that
Sarah was Abraham’s wife
in a dream,

Young Joseph dreamt
the interpretation
for the well-being
of Pharaoh’s Egypt
and his own Israelite tribe,

Gideon acted upon a dream
and defeated
the Midianites,

Daniel’s book is full of
dream interpretations,

The husband Joseph’s dream
assured him
it would be okay
to take Mary to wife,
and again later
to take the child Jesus
to Egypt.

But, they say
the book condemns
all divination as occult
and a tool of the Devil.

Scribes and priests
who wrote The Book
condemned divination.
condemned guessing
when it came
to the will of God.

Because they were
the only ones
who could read
The Book
with authority.

They told their true believers
what was in the book.
Their true believers
did not know
any better.

They still don’t.