Although the reality of Divinity is sanctified and boundless,
the aims and needs of the creatures are restricted. God’s grace is like the
rain that cometh down from heaven: the water is not bounded by the limitations
of form, yet on whatever place it poureth down, it taketh on
limitations—dimensions, appearance, shape—according to the characteristics of
that place. In a square pool, the water, previously unconfined, becometh a
square; in a six-sided pool it becometh a hexagon, in an eight-sided pool an
octagon, and so forth. The rain itself hath no geometry, no limits, no form,
but it taketh on one form or another, according to the restrictions of its
vessel. In the same way, the Holy Essence of the Lord God is boundless,
immeasurable, but His graces and splendours become finite in the creatures,
because of their limitations…
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of
‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
