{"id":25,"date":"2014-06-27T20:46:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T03:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourinthegarden.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2016-07-05T20:11:10","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T03:11:10","slug":"what-is-an-umbilicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/what-is-an-umbilicus\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an Umbilicus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the story, Four in the Garden<\/em>, the umbilicus is presented as a unique connection to God, a channel through which God’s life flows into us. Spiritual abundance is often compared to a well or fountain that overflows and spills out from within. The dictionary definition of umbilicus is “center” and this makes sense, since it is our inward center where God intersects us and fills us with His spiritual nourishment. God fills us from the inside out, not the other way around. The umbilicus is our spiritual connection to God and to the abundant, divine life that He brings to our souls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the story, Four in the Garden, the umbilicus is presented as a unique connection to God, a channel through which God’s life flows into us. Spiritual abundance is often compared to a well or fountain that overflows and spills out from within. The dictionary definition of umbilicus is “center” and this makes sense, since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,9],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-god-particle\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":0},"title":"The God Particle","date":"November 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower \u00ad\u2013 the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.\u201d \u2014Helen Keller. Most of us think of God as being outside, up there, or elsewhere. \u201cHe is high and lifted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Making God Real"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-world-behind-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":1},"title":"The World behind the World","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, my brother-in-law made a comment about a realistic computer game he had been playing. At one point in the game, a flaw appeared in the virtual world that revealed elements behind and below the scene. He equated this experience to a brief glimpse into the secret world hidden behind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":390,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/spiritual-surrender\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":2},"title":"Spiritual Surrender","date":"July 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The word \u201csurrender\u201d conjures an image of giving up, of raising a white flag and throwing down one\u2019s weapons in a painful acknowledgement of defeat. In its spiritual application, however, it is an act of liberation, not defeat. Spiritual surrender is a posture of yielding to God. It is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/creating-an-opening-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":3},"title":"Creating an Opening for God","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Among those who believe in the power of prayer, some seem to have better results than others. Why is that? No formula exists that can force God to do what we want. God is not manipulated. But we can take steps to make us more receptive to His generosity. Preparation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Openness to God"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":272,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/when-god-feels-far-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":4},"title":"When God Feels Far Away","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In my book, Four in the Garden, the protagonist, Cherished, loses his connection to Creator. Because of this loss, Cherished feels as though Creator has abandoned him. In the story, I had neglected to show that Creator stayed close. I recently revised my book and added this missing scene. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trust"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/creating-space-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":25,"position":5},"title":"Creating Space for God","date":"September 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"What does it mean to have a relationship with God? 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An Inward Experience Sometimes, we experience God in a dramatic, physical way, but God is most often experienced inwardly.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Making God Real"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}