Good morning…
After driving nine hours toward home from Pennsylvania, we stopped in North Carolina to visit our oldest best friends. With ease, we talked about everything that came to mind; how wonderful to feel truly seen, known, and loved. After our long dinner and our soulful discussion, we went to bed. Being the first to wake around 5:30 am, I put on my bathing suit to swim for an hour as the sun rose.
As I swam, I noticed a little dark bug struggling for survival on top of the water. The simple rules we have been studying this summer naturally flooded my mind. 1. Do no harm. 2. Do good. In those early morning moments, I was given an opportunity to put our learning into practice. I splashed the tiny creature up onto the pool deck. She scurried away, rescued by my nearly effortless action.
After my swim, I dried off, made myself some coffee, and sat down outside to marvel at God’s light filling the sky.
Checking my phone, the first email I opened contained this poignant poem.
******
Amen by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
When I forget that the whole world
is holy, even the tiny dark bugs
that slip through window screens
and flock and stick to kitchen lights,
even the charred black remains of forest,
even the river as it floods bright red,
even when my cheeks are tear-stained
and my body tightens with fear,
that is when a kind letter from a stranger
arrives in the mail, or the rabbit will stand
on his back legs to nibble on mint,
or the meadow will blaze with the day’s
last slant of sunlight and my heart opens
so wide that inside the fear rises praise.
******
“…holy, even the tiny dark bugs…” writes Rosemerry.
Holy, even the tiny dark bug I had just splashed to safety.
God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.” And there it was: wild animals of every kind, cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:24-25, MSG).
There is so much to fear nowadays, and we are quick to forget that the whole world is holy. Like God, might we train our eyes to see the goodness in life? Harnessing Holy Spirit power one choice at a time, each day we are invited to 1. Do no harm. and 2. Do good. In big and small ways, we put God’s love into action, doing the next right thing, then the next, and the next.
As we open wide our hearts to the goodness of God, from inside our fear, we will sense praise quietly rising like the sun. Amen.
…Sue…
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