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Jakob Böhme was a German mystic to whom God revealed Himself in a ray of light being reflected in a tin plate. Some describe it as a pewter plate, though after all pewter is merely a number of alloys, including lead, of which tin is the main component.

So it was light striking a tin plate and Böhme saw God. In an instant he experienced the total mystery of God.

This was the revelation upon which all his writing are based. For years he did nothing but painstakingly attempt to translate this vision’s shattering significance into language.

Böhme had a wife and six children and they lived in poverty. His wife was not terribly supportive of his fantasizing about God, preferring that he provide for his family and put food on the table. Fill those tin plates with food.

Perhaps it was the very fact that the plates were empty that allowed Böhme to witness God so clearly.

After his first book was published, a wealthy man, believing Böhme to be a genius, became his patron, taking care of all his financial difficulties, totally supporting all those children and the complaining wife.

This act of generosity destroyed Böhme. His later writings are full of resentments and puzzlements. They became, dull, slack, and repetitive. He no longer had to struggle with the tedious outward realities that opposed his inner experience of a manifest God.

On his tomb is an image of God expressed like this:

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