The place of plenty

Do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ Then he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’ (Mark 8:18b-21)

The place of plenty

You are the place of plenty, dearest Christ, and you are never far off.

Beneath the roiling emotions of the moment, you remain, deep within, love eternal and unbounded, waiting for us to descend into the mystery of who we are.

That mystery is you, deep within. You are close as our breath, saints of old tell us. But too seldom we believe it.

We confuse ourselves with the struggles or successes of the day, with what we have accomplished … or not, with guilt we carry or wounds that have never quite healed.

But our real identity is eternal and unchanging, even as the emotions of the hour toss us about.

We are the love that appears when we pray, aloud, releasing the tensions of the day into the air. It is then we discover we are something more, something profoundly alive and beautiful.

It is love, the Love Christ is, deep and ever-plentiful, we find beneath our fears and façade, hidden by our defenses and the social clothing in which we dress ourselves.

We should go, often, to this place of plenty, and receive the food which satisfies the soul. The One who awaits you within is Love and nothing but, who wonders why you do not return every day to eat the food that fills and frees your heart.  

‘Do you not see?’ he pleas. ‘I am Love, always there, always enough, always plenty for every need.’

Pr. David L. Miller