Good morning…
A friend sent me this colorful image this week, an image that reads, “If you want to believe that the world is terrible, watch the news. If you want to believe that the world is incredible, spend time in nature.”
It reminds me of a quote we read aloud this week in our study of Sue Monk Kidd’s God’s Joyful Surprise. On page 120, we find an excerpt of enduring wisdom.
“I had been picking and choosing when and where I could meet God and experience His love. I had thought… I can find God alone on retreat; I cannot find Him running carpool. He can speak to me from the Bible; He can’t speak to me from a museum painting. But when I arbitrarily decide where God can be found and where He can’t, I have sharply curtailed His avenues of coming to me. It’s about as silly as not opening a gift because we weren’t planning on its coming wrapped this way. Each moment of our day holds the possibility of encountering God’s love. I have tried to think of these moments as pearls strung on one holy string of God’s presence. To tear the string and divide the pearls up into two piles is like casting them before swine.”
What does the “swine” verse really say? Do not throw your pearls before pigs, for they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces (Matthew 7:6b, AMP). Tearing to pieces things we don’t understand, we divide life’s daily pearls into two separate piles. We judge good or bad, friend or enemy, right or wrong, sacred or secular. Our judgements can turn on us, pulling us apart.
Instead of trampling the unexpected gifts of daily life, Jesus offers us another way in verses seven and eight. We are invited into intimacy with God, as we thrive in this terrible, incredible world. Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.
Now I returned to the book except and string a few more pearls.
“I had been picking and choosing when and where I could meet God and experience His love. I had thought… I can find God alone on retreat; I cannot find Him running carpool. He can speak to me from the Bible; He can’t speak to me from a museum painting.” Now I add… I can find God in nature; I cannot find Him on the news. I can find God in the incredible; I can’t find God in the terrible.”
When we arbitrarily decide where God can be found and where He can’t, we sharply curtail His avenues of coming to us. As we watch the news and spend quality time in nature, might we encounter God’s love in new ways each day?
Instead of trampling life’s unexpected gifts, Jesus teaches us to string all of the daily pearls on the single strand of God’s living presence. Ask God. Seek God. Knock on the door of God. And keep on asking, seeking, and knocking every day of this terrible, incredible life.
…Sue…
