Saturday, August 1, 2015

Psalm 8:1-4

O Love, my Beloved,
   how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

You, whose glory is sung in the heavens. 
   Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
   to silence the enemy and the avenger. 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established; 
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals that you care for them? 

Blue moon

Southbound jets from O’Hare stream across the face of the blue moon rising above the cedars, and I raise my glass to heavens, toasting with chardonnay the pale light of the second full moon of July.

The month is gone now, but not the gentle joy of sitting in the night, my glass held high, framed by the pure white disc shimmering in the eastern sky.

I toast your glory, O Lord, O Love who speaks in the night sky. I toast the glory of Love that refuses to let go, of light that penetrates the heart’s dark spaces.

The moon’s silent journey through the night, silver light reflecting from its rugged face, all this can be reduced to mathematical formulae, explainable by mind and reason.

But not so explainable is why I … and ancient souls thousands of years before … are drawn to this light, why it awakens wonder, why we find it beautiful, why it stirs love for earth and sky, life and breath; why we want to share this light, hoping another heart will be as moved as we.

And why does this pale light stir the desire to say, thank you … for my life, thank you for this love and hope?

Explain that one, please, and tell me why such desire is constant across the centuries. Why do we stare into the night sky and find ourselves as moved as our primordial cave-dwelling ancestors?

Perhaps it’s because we know … we created none of this. It is all gift, enlivening our senses, filling us with the joy of being a human soul, able to see and feel, to be moved beyond ourselves, to wonder how it call came to be and why it is all so beautiful.

O Lord, O Love, you made us to see and know, to raises glasses high under the pale moonlight, to say thank you and to be amazed that our lives are part of the story of this amazing universe, a cosmos that springs from an infinitesimal speck to this wonder, this light, this love.

I think you created it all just to awaken this love. I think this is what you really want and treasure.

For all this, thank you, thank you for making me a human soul, thank you for awakening my heart and moving me to look up, thank you for letting me know I am the child of the great love, the great joy of your divine heart.

Thank you for speaking in the moonlight.

Pr. David L. Miller