Merton give space to note when these "seeds" of contemplation come to us so that we may become aware of more than our superficial lives.
...it is God's love that warms me in the sun and God's love that sends the cold rain. It is God's love that feeds me in the bread I eat and God that feeds me also by hunger and fasting. It is the love of God that sends the winter days when I am cold and sick, and the hot summer when I labor and my clothes are full of sweat: but it is God who breathes on me with light winds off the river and in the breezes out of the wood. His love spreads the shade of the sycamore over my head and sends the water-boy along the edge of the wheat field with a bucket from the spring, while the laborers are resting and the mules stand under the trees.
It is God's love that speaks to me in the birds and streams; but also behind the clamor of the city God speaks to me in His judgements, and all these things are seeds to me from His will.
It is not always a a pleasant breeze. God is present in the breezes that also make our sweating more intense. But if we are looking for only one kind of presence, we miss so much of the expansiveness of God's love. Our God is available and handing us the vision of God's Reign even as we endure the ordinary that is often not the best of the way we would have things come to us. The grand and mighty intervention of the love of our God may be that simple bucket of water...in other words...the simple life that is offered to us by and through others when the only thing happening in our lives is the everyday routine that we think offers no inspiration...and yet it is revealing God's love at hand.
Connection: When will you be surprised by the presence of God's love today?
Lord God, when you touch us with your love, we often do not feel that touch. Most often, it is because we do not anticipate how close and present your love is to us. Help to open our eyes to the many and various ways we are exposed to your love...and yet do not see. Amen.
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