Streams of Mercy
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