Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 15:8-10

[Jesus said:] “Or what women having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in presence of God over one sinner who repents.”

Prayer

I saw her eyes, Jesus. Eternity appeared in an instant in the warmth of her ebony smile as she reached for her son, 13 or so, as peace was passed, person to person. Worshipers shuffled to greet familiar faces, unaware that the beauty of forever had just transformed a tiny sanctuary on 75th street into the gate of heaven.

These were mother’s eyes, delighting in a child her arms sought to enfold in the joy of your peace. I reached my hand to her, but I was blessedly invisible until those arms had completed their sacred mission, making flesh that love that refuses to turn right or left from the face of the beloved.

And then I didn’t want to take her hand. I wanted nothing that would break the rapture of beholding the beauty of such blessed sacrament. I wanted only to look at her—and know again that I dwell in a world haunted by Holy Presence.

It is enough for me, Jesus. Seeing her, I need nothing more. For I see you in the delight of her eyes and the reach of her arms, a beauty that refuses to fade though all else may pass.

I do not know why beauty moves me so; I only know that you are in it. And for today, that’s enough.

Pr. David L. Miller