A good place to start

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. (Luke 6:35)

Consolation sometimes comes out of the blue, like when sitting in the chair in the southeast corner of the living room. Nothing magic about the chair except its location beside east- and south-facing windows, which generously share the sun’s morning blessing on the house ... and me.

It’s a good place to start any day, but some days the emotions stirred far exceed their cause. There is no reason why today’s gray light should awaken anything except the longing for spring.

Faint rays shed pale shadows on the floor, exposing dust from recent painting projects down the hall, an unnecessary reminder of the stiffness in my back for which (I hope) black coffee is an adequate cure.

But even this is good, and my heart issues impromptu praise for the ache in my body, for the dust on the floor, for the paint spattered ladder in the loft and for the surprising tears in my eyes. “You are the goodness in all things,” I pray, “the beauty in all that is beauty, the grace in all that is grace, the love in all that loves and awakens love within our slumbering hearts.”

My praise continued in words I wish I could recall, phrases flowing freely from the Spirit within, each coming of its own accord, each filling my heart with love for the all-surpassing Love passing through me, sighting my heart that I might know (as only the heart can) the holy Source of goodness and beauty, love and grace.

This is consolation, the heart’s hope and deepest desire. Sometimes it comes through explicit means, a song, a smile, a timely word, s shimmering sunset, the toddling laughter of a child. Other times it comes for no apparent reason.

Perhaps it’s because God finds a path around our resistance, or maybe some unseen door in our hearts cracks open just enough to let the goodness of the Good pass through.

Whenever it happens there is nothing to do but notice and let the Love Who Is ... love us to life and teach us to love.

David L. Miller