Morning Lake Jovita taken 7/05

 

Dec 10. 2005

Mt 17:9a, 10-13 As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased. So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. The world and the people in it can be deaf to God. The reading here speaks of the suffering at the hands of the people of Elijah's returned prophet, John the Baptist and the coming suffering of Christ at the hands of the people. There is an understanding of the disciples that Jesus is speaking to here that John the Baptist was a prophet sent from God to restore, make things right again for God. The reading does not tell if the disciples really heard and understood what Jesus was telling them about His future fate of suffering. It is left unspoken what the disciples truly did or did not hear of what was said.

Often many things are said and not all of what is said is even truly heard. Of what is heard some of it is processed through individual personal filters created from our being and some of the message is heard, some is partly heard and sometimes some of the message is altered.

God fortunately keeps speaking to me through all different times and situations and speaks to me in many means. I have heard God in the rain, in the face of another person, in a voice singing, in a little hand of a child reaching, in the cry of a hawk, in the sun bouncing off the wings of a honeybee, in the tall grass waving in a light wind, in a wind that suddenly comes up and as suddenly leaves at times of prayer outside, in the sound the leaves make in a breeze, in the ripples on the water.

It comes to mind at this moment the face and response of a person I spoke with yesterday. She had enormous personal obstacles from some elements that she had been born and raised with, and knowing this has chosen a difficult path in her young life. She thought this was the right thing for her even though she knew that other ways would be easier. When I told her that I respected her confidentiality and I admired her courage and that she should acknowledge and give herself in her humility some credit and appreciation for the courage she showed, her eyes filled up. We looked at each other and for me it was a God moment without having to label it or use the name or ritual. God is present when we share the deeper apprecriation of greeting the God in each other. I am grateful that the Holy Spirit had guided me yesterday, and thankful that there are times when I can be present to another person in that very special way.

Of course, many times I am the deaf fool that does not hear the voice of God or see God's hand as it moves before me or sense the Spirit as it moves within me or learn from the teachings of Jesus that are before me daily. There are times of darkness, stumbling, lost moments in the ebb and flow of my daily life.

I pray that today I will live every grace and precious moment in the best fullest way with the love and tenderness that God has given me to use. I begin again my morning praise. A time of first rising, allowing my heart to rise as the day begins. There is a joy and quiet anticipation to a new part of the day the morning, hope begins anew.