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These two poems highlight the greater responsiveness that is sought from God as Friend. One may claim Him as Lord or Master from the distance of prayer, but to claim Him as Friend involves some sort of reassurance from God, some confirmation that even as the seeker has approached Him, so He is willing to approach the seeker on the selfsame level-as an equal, as a Friend and Playmate after His own Heart. At the pinnacle stage of this development, the nature of the bond between man and God is immeasurably strengthened and man becomes God's conscious partner in the cosmic game:
I AM CAUGHT
I am caught by an animal
Therefore
I am ruthlessly commanded to surrender.
I am caught by man.
Therefore
I am unconditionally forced to offer.
I am caught by God.
Therefore
I am lovingly asked to love. Why?
Because God wants me to become another God.
Why?
Because He wants me to be
His main partner
In His cosmic Game.[30]
This is the crown of the mystic waywhere man becomes, as it were, another God. If he were wholly merged in God, the "Game" would not continue as such. Thus, in union man retains his distinctness and the delightful play of man and God then becomes a pageant that is spread across the length and breadth of the universe.
One extension of the bonds of fellowship that is popular with mystical writers is the symbol of God as a Guest, the soul of man being His host. As long as God dwells within man, He is felt to have accepted the seeker's invitation:
