Thursday, November 1, 2012

Today’s text

Revelation 21:3-4

Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone.'

Reflection

We live in hope, or we do not live at all, and every hope we hold strains beyond the horizon of daily life. Every hope presses toward final joy, the union of the heart of God with our own.

Our longings and desires, however small and short-sighted, lean forward to know the fulfillment of the human heart, hoping truest happiness is possible against nagging doubts and long waiting.

I have looked into the faces of those for whom hope is slipping away. I speak not of disease or threat to physical life but loss of heart.

The anguish of the drowning crosses their brow, as they are no longer able to imagine or hold hope for happiness, for laughter and peace, for the exultation of being alive, an embodied soul able to lift hands and heart to the sky and give thanks for the miracle of being.

Life has gone out of them; Spirit has been choked from them by disappointment and struggle, anger or rejection.

But despair must be beaten back with the only promise capable of withstanding everything that would extinguish the shining light of hope in our eyes: God will make his home among us. We will dwell in sight of the Light that can never be extinguished.

That Light will fill every drab, dark corner of our being until we shine, lit up from within by the laughing light that glowed from Jesus’ eyes as he blessed children and made the blind see.

Then our tears will not be of sadness or gray despair but of fullness of heart, crystal drops of joy spilling from souls that, finally, know the love for which they were made.

For the One who made them fills them with the light of eternal nearness.

And yes, it happens even here on this earthly plane. There are moments, such sweet moments when all doubt and despair disappear, when we know the dwelling of God is with us, in us.

Our heart and hands rise in joy, and hope ignites the light of love in shining eyes. It’s more beautiful than I can say.

Pr. David L. Miller