In recent weeks, we’ve been challenged to “look for God” in the “small things” of life. We spent a few moments in worship yesterday sharing about things we’ve seen: a beautiful Luna Moth, four little butterflies enjoys a butterfly bush, a mother fox and her young, spiders and grasshoppers, deer drinking peacefully from a local pond, the moon and stars. etc. While we didn’t have any little children in our midst yesterday, the “big children” showed by their sharing that they had learned the lesson well!
In her book A Tree Full of Angels, Sister Macrina Wiederkehr speak of “seeing the holy in the ordinary” and “feasting at the table of daily life.” The fast pace of our lives makes it difficult for us to find grace in the present moment and to see the blessing in the world around us. Most days many of us are simply too busy to taste the fullness of life all around!
On an early morning walk in the fall, Macrina saw the first rays of sunlight shimmering through a silver maple tree. She writes,
“It was truly a moment of wonder, resplendent with light. I stood gazing as one in the midst of a vision. Suddenly I am uncertain whether those golden arms swinging in the morning sunlight are tree branches or angel wings. And then in a twinkling, I’m certain that I’m standing before a tree full of angels, dazzling me with their glorious presence, bright wings of fire all aglow!”
To look at morning light shining through the branches of a tree, and see a “treeful of angels” is truly to see “the holy in the ordinary.”
In speaking of “feasting at the table of daily life,” Macrina writes:
“There is a table to which we are invited each day.
It offers us trees and stones, sunshine and stars,
eagles and angels, roots and water, joy and sorrow,
earth and fire, flesh and blood, storms and memories,
words and silence, spiders and webs, night and day,
death and life, crusts, crumbs, and loaves.
It is the table that Love prepares for us each moment.
It is the table of daily life.
Freely we are invited to come and eat.”
Each one of us is invited to the table of life. It is new every morning, waiting for those with eyes to see. Perhaps we are given to one another to help take care of each other, and sharing the “table of daily life” is a wonderful place to begin.
Macrina closes her book with these word:
It was only a Silver Maple
but in the morning’s sunlight
It was filled with heaven.
I stood in a trance
as one touched by angel wings.
I knew that it was God.
O God, I cried,
Endearing One, I love you!
You cannot hide from me.
Between the cracks of daily life,
I find you waiting to be adored.
You slip into my life like night and day
like stars and sunshine.
I know that you are God.
May God help each of us to see a “treeful of angels” and to “feast at the table of daily life!
Elizabeth
The July 29th issue of the Presbyterian Outlook focuses on the topic: “Presbyterians and Race – 200 Years of the Outlook.”
Outlook editor Jill Duffield writes:
“Unless we white people recognize the depth and breadth of injustice and harm done, we can never advocate and participate fully in making the amends that result in real reconciliation. Knowing the past, as best and honestly as we are able, is critical to acting faithfully in the present and subsequently shaping a future pleasing to God. White Christians ought to be leading the way to expose our history, name our complicity, recognize our complacency, confess the sin of systemic racism, repent of relentless white supremacy and work for justice … Our baptism must matter, materially, made manifest in how we live together. Like Zacchaeus, our encounter with Jesus should transform us in ways undeniably evident to others.”
Many people say that the past is past and that all that matters is what we do now. While the past may be past, the pain and suffering, and the experiences of terror and oppression endured, continue to impact the lives of many. The evil of white supremacy and the advantages it gives whites and the limitations it imposes on people of color is alive and well. I am coming to realize that as never before. I have been a part of past injustices, and am called to deal with their present consequences. At seventy years of age, it’s difficult to know what to do now. I know I must be willing to hear the truth, and must be a diligent seeker and sharer of that truth.
Duffield writes:
“The white church’s complicity with racism is indisputable, and the suffering inflicted on generations of African American is undeniable…White Christians cannot deny the injustice of slavery and Jim Crow, the horrendous violence of the KKK, lynch mobs and bombings, nor the systemic unfairness of access to home ownership, funding for college education, impact of law and order legislation and so much more. Knowing that our leg up comes at the expense of standing on another’s neck, we must repent. Finally, we must repair the damage, make reparations and pay back that which is owed…We must prayerfully do the work to recognize the depth and breadth of the wrong done, and truly repent.”
We can rise to meet that challenge only with God’s help. “Repair is possible. Reconciliation is possible, Reparations are possible. Through Christ, all things are possible,” writes Duffield. This is truth, and we must long to live into the fullness of this truth together. She mentions the story of Zacchaeus in scripture. If you remember, Zacchaeus was a tax collector who cheated his fellow citizens without giving it a second thought. When he encountered Jesus, he came to see the error of his ways, and he promised give half his possessions to the poor, and to pay back those he defrauded four times as much as he had taken from them.
Duffield closes her editorial with these words:
“If we prayerfully do the work to recognize the depth and breadth of the wrong done and truly repent, then the acts of repair become inevitably unstoppable, joyful and exuberant. Like Zacchaeus, we will do whatever it takes to make things right.”
I share these thoughts from Jill Duffield’s editorial in The Presbyterian Outlook, in hopes that they will touch your heart as they have mine, and move us all to be a part of the new thing God is doing in our day. In the words of Mother Theresa, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
Elizabeth
We are blessed at Jackson Springs Presbyterian to have a very special “time with our children” each Sunday. As the little ones gather on the front row, the adult “children” in our congregation sit on the edge of their pews waiting to hear the message too!
During the summer months we are focusing on “all creatures great and small” and learning facts about many of God’s unique creations. From week to week we meet different animals and learn what makes them special.
Last Sunday we learned about a caterpillar creating a chrysalis. We saw each chrysalis hanging from the top of the jar, and we watched and waited. The jar was placed in a butterfly house in the corner of the conference room. During the week, when the transformation was complete, a beautiful butterfly emerged from each chrysalis. This morning we saw the butterflies fluttering about in the butterfly house, and the children carried it through the congregation so all the “adult children” could see up close as well. After the prayer and before they went to Children’s Church, the group of four little girls took the butterfly house to the butterfly bushes at the manse, and after giving each butterfly one of their names, released them. I believe I saw all four of them enjoying the blooms on the butterfly bushes!
We read 2 Corinthians 5:17: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” It’s easy to see why the butterfly is a symbol for new life – everything old passes away and everything is made new! So it is in your life and mine through God’s work of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. “In Christ” we are new creations!
I attended the birthday of a member of a former congregation a month or so ago. Each one at the celebration was given a butterfly bookmark. The butterfly shape was filled with seeds, and we were instructed to “plant” the butterfly in celebration of this dear one “100 Years Loved.” At the bottom of the bookmark were these words: “Butterflies are God’s confetti, thrown upon the earth in celebration of His love.”
I came across other words about butterflies that speak volumes of heart meaning:
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly….. the butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough… We delight in the beauty of a butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty…..Life is like a butterfly. You go through changes before you have something beautiful…… If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.”
I give thanks for children and all the ways they add joy to our lives, for stories of God’s wonderful creation for children young and old, for the process of change that adds beauty to life, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.
Elizabeth