12/12/12 - quite a date. God as love never ends - never lets go - never sits back Monday I know people who can remember the lyrics to songs - long quotes from books - scenes from movies - all the actors and actresses in movies and television shows. I think that is wild. I'm lucky to remember what I have to do today or how I did the same thing last month or last week. And yet, we are a people who are called to remember. That is what holds us together as a people who say we are faithful to our faithful God. We remember what God as done for us and what God promises to be for us as the day moves along. I'm thankful that in this adventure of remembering - for someone who forgets so easily - we say we count on the Holy Spirit to lead the way and be the power that keeps us on the way. I count on a very small amount of stuff to pull me through the promises of God. Thank God the load is light and never can be diminished. Tuesday I think that God makes the stories of God's faithfulness stick. We may brush them off here and there, but the stories - the love - never stops sticking to us. It is quite like those nasty burrs that have barbs like Velcro. They never let you go and it is a crazy mess to try and undo them from clothing. There have been times when I was sure that the burr didn't stick to me - only to realize that is caught on a piece of clothing I did not see and by the time I notice it, the burr has continued to transfer itself onto all my other clothing. I count on the stories of God's faithfulness to stick to me even when my life is focused elsewhere. In that way, my memory is not the vital part of the new life that is meant to become my own. Rather, as I long to go one way, I find myself exposed to that love that - like a burr - continues to hang onto me. I need that kind of love to hang on to me for I surely find many reasons to let go of it. Knowing that God's love is forever and always present and always able to turn me around, helps me to know that such an image of love is possible within my life. Why? Because I have this creative, loving, merciful, forgiving God at my side - even when I don't expect God or 'feel' God's presence. That eternal presence is the power that opens the door to new life - reflective of God's love. I imagine Jesus always leaning back on the promise in order to make the moment at hand one in which he was able to be a loving presence himself. I go back to that simple refrain "We love - because God first loved us." God as love shapes my loving so that it does not become a self-centered love - which may not be love at all. In fact, self-centered, self-indulgent, turned-in-on self love loses its creative energy because it has no place to go. It is self-consuming. God's love will always pull me out of myself so that as I am drawn in to love the world around me, I will also see the possibility of the love of God available and present in those I encounter. It is always a surprise and always a great blessing. O God of love and new life, continue to surprise us by the complete availability of your creative love right in the midst of this day. Amen. |
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