Monday, August 13, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:32

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Prayer

Do you smile when you say this, Jesus? Do joy and yearning fill you as you survey the faces before you? Do you look for a glimmer of understanding in their eyes? Do you wait to see if their minds will race and their hearts dance as it dawns on them that these are the happiest words ever spoken, the most joyous in all the world’s weary history?

Please know that my heart dances, Jesus, and I cannot sit still in my chair. For you bring news that is better than any that ever has been or will be. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give, and to give to me, and to give no small thing but the life of fullness and eternity, where every tear is wiped from every eye and death is no more, where all things are engulfed in your delight and fear dissolves in a bottomless sea of mercy: for all is well, and all is in you.

But I already knew this, my Beloved. I knew it is your joy to give, for you have woven that awareness into my soul, fashioned in your image and restored in your likeness. I find highest joy in blessing other souls with a word of care and hope, a word that awakens in them the awareness that they, too, are possessed by a love that renders them speechless. There is nothing better. It brings tears to my eyes.

To yours, too? Pardon me for speaking of you in such human terms. I know you are more, always more. I cannot comprehend you. But you let me taste your joy and know what brings you pleasure. And that alone is all I need to live in expectation and to die in hope.

Pr. David L. Miller