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Today’s text
… for my house shall be called a house of
prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who
gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.’
Thank you … even for
the pain
The grace of these words still excites my heart. I remember,
too, how Jesus used the words as he cleared the temple of dishonest money
changers and those who turned a place of prayer into an arena of
money-grubbing.
My house shall be a place of prayer for all peoples, he
said.
It’s the word all that
stirs my heart and fills me with joy, yes, fills me … complete. All.
This includes me … and all of me. All are welcome to this
place of prayer.
And what is prayer other than a time and place of meeting,
communing and knowing the Love who has no other name. Knowing the great I Am, who was and is and always will be.
I suppose the words move me so deeply because I have not
forgotten what it means to feel like an outsider, excluded, not wanted--separated
from those whose acceptance and approval I desperately wanted in childhood and
adolescent days when I felt at ease and welcome … nowhere … not even in my own
skin.
Those feelings no longer plague my heart. They come and go
from time-to-time, so I have not
forgotten--moving me to wa extend the gracious welcome of God especially those
who know what it is to be on the outside of life looking in.
But today the stirring and joy in my heart over three small
letters--all--stirs nothing but joy.
It’s all joy, even the pains that come. I am thankful for them all, all of
them.
For all of them led me to you, Holy One; all of them lead me
back again and again to you, the Loving Mystery who has haunted my heart from
childhood.
All of them are part of the journey that keeps me near your
heart and my heart needing and wanting you. All of them are the cause of my
startling joy this morning and this moment.
The bumps and bruises of life’s journey open my ears and my
heart to hear the word … all … and to
know the Love you have always wanted me to know.
Thank you.
Pr. David L. Miller
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