Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139
How fascinating a good read of historical fiction can be for the soul. I feel it allows us to taste a bit of a past we have not travelled and a present blooming with possibilities. As a child, forever at the side of an elder, I listened to their stories of trial and tribulations as well as great faith and joy. I didn’t realize at the time, they were gently weaving in me a source of love and caring for others and a great sense of gratitude. Like a tapestry that comes to life the more a piece is added on.
We have heard the phrase, ‘time is money’ but it is not money that makes us whole within. Money for the sake of sustaining a good life has such value. It is when it begins to change us in ways it ought not to that we have to take stock of what has become of us and those we love. We have all fallen short of being where God would want us to be. I recently conversed with a man who said, he had money, personal jet and all those luxury items but came to find that they meant nothing when one of his children became ill and passed away. For a few days it stayed with me, the struggle that this family must have endured. This man went on to say it was his faith that gave him and his family strength. He walked away from the life of rich pleasures toward a greater source of infinite love. The coins in a pocket can mean nothing if a child becomes ill and is taken from us. For it is in knowing that faith in the face of death can one day become a reuniting in heaven, that fills us with hope that is worth more than can ever be measured. To one degree or another, we can all get caught up in things around us and what we see can become blurred. We have all fed pride and greed and allowed charity to fade. There can be a darkness and light within us but it is the one we choose to act on, that makes the difference. It was no accident that this man was to share his story with me but an act of hope.
In winter, we use our tomato puree that was made in summer for the seasons ahead. It reminds me of those precious, fleeting moments with our families and honouring traditions. More than the sauce, it’s the treasured time spent with loved ones and treating every moment as if it were your last. Savouring it like a precious act of enduring love. In the sauce, we relive the gratitude of how our ancestors rose from poverty to a full life, rich in love. The cauldrons stirred the memories of where we have trod and who we are. Since my youth I have always believed we are placed most preciously, in a family, in a life, in a place where we can find God’s love it in. In a time or moment in which we can embrace, learn and grow in great love. I pray that we don’t lose sight of great love only to settle for something the world rather us settle in. I believe, God places us perfectly in the lives of others, and they in ours, to grow in virtue and love and most of all to grow in grace.
Psalm 139 has brought me such comfort and joy these past many months. This passage serves as a reminder for me that God is there in every moment and every breath. May you allow God to enter in all the moments in your life.
Peace and grace,
Claudia