Gentle Spring Rain

Behold, God is great, and we know him not, 

neither can the number of his years be searched out.

for he maketh small the drops of water:

they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof;

which the clouds do drop

and distill upon man abundantly.

Job 36:26-27

In high school my history teacher Janet Eisendrath taught the Book of Job as literature.  I have always cherished the way she opened a world of beauty and meaning to us with that class; and I have approached the Bible in very much the same way that she taught ever since.  This verse from Job enhances my experience of today's Spring rain.

Dedication and Obedience

Maria Kutschera of Salzberg wanted nothing more than to serve God by spending her whole life as a nun in a very strict convent.  God, however, had another idea. When Captain Von Trapp asked Maria to marry him, she ran to the convent hoping to be readmitted there.  The nuns answered her by saying that God wanted her to marry the Captain; and she must obey. Today my daughter and I are at the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont, enjoying the story of Maria and her faith.

Slowing Down

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

King James Version (KJV)

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land...

Thank God for good friends!  Spending time walking slowly around Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge with an old friend this morning brought so much peace, especially when some painted turtles "spoke" to us. 

Bird Lore

Isn't it time to listen to the language of birds again! There is a thrill in recognizing our old friends who made themselves absent for much of the winter. Christian tradition can enhance the enjoyment of birds. For example, the robin has a heroic place in Christian lore.  At the crucifixion, the robin felt with Jesus in his agony, and went to pull out one of the thorns from the Lord's brow.  It was Jesus' blood that stained the robin's breast red.

April Fools

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the one about Balaam, a false prophet hired to curse Israel, and his talking ass (Numbers 22:21-39) .  Balaam stubbornly beat his donkey repeatedly when it stopped on the path.  When the donkey asks Balaam the reason for the beatings, Balaam responds that the donkey has made a fool of him.  Really the donkey sees the angel of the Lord with drawn sword blocking the path,  God has spoken through the mouth of the ass.  Let us then, suffer fools wisely, and tolerate being one if necessary for the will of God.

Listening

This morning I checked out the wisdom of the Society of Saint John in Cambridge, MA and watched their short daily video.  Today's theme touched on the gift of listening.   The prophet Isaiah asks "what shall I cry" (Isaiah 40:6); and I ask the same, adding to it "what shall I hear?"  The Jewish affirmation of faith  comes to mind "Hear O Israel the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 40:6).  When I listen to another person with the knowledge of our universal human experience, our oneness in God,  I can be a channel of at-one-ment or atonement. Here is a prayer from  my book The Heavenly Body:

Prayer for the Ears

Creator of hearing, I pray for the healing of
__(name)__’s ears.   May __(name)__ hear the Good News.
May (he/she) listen for your Word.
Stop __(name)__’s ears to the sounds of destruction,
and open them to your love.
Amen.

Leaping and Dancing

Of all places, I was reminded at a high school performance of "Footloose," directed by my daughter Fran that dancing is part of the testimony of scripture, "there is a time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4).  This morning I used my favorite Bible search site  BibleGateway to look at the other references to dancing and leaping in the Scripture.  A wonderful connection is that during the energy healing treatment in Brookline two days ago, the healer, a dancer was able to enliven the energy in my legs, and I expressed this to her by saying "I experienced the feeling of leaping."