Simply follow

[Creation] gives us insight into the way Divinity operates, with patience and lots of coming and going, living and dying, resurrecting and spreading seeds of new life.  Species come and go, stars come and go and resurrect.  Creativity and birthing are at the heart of the habits of the universe – indeed the cosmos exhibits habits that we call the paschal mystery of life, death, and resurrection.

          Matthew Fox (The Tao of Thomas Aquinus, pp, 26,27

__________________

 

The heavens declare the glory of God

says the Psalmist (19)

 

Indeed

 

There is nothing like a breathtaking morning

a sky on fire

a snow-covered mountain stark against a blue sky

 

There is nothing like a doe lightly dancing through a meadow

the grace of a barn cat

the beauty of a bird’s son

 

to awaken us to all that is Sacred

to beauty

creativity

hope

and love

 

and there is nothing like creation

to reveal the way Sacred works

 

There is amazing creativity yes

But mixed into the beauty

There is change

Death

And rebirth

 

And there are so many lessons to be learned

 

That what looks beautiful and good is not always good

That what looks ugly and useless is not always bad

That things change, indeed must change

That there are grand patterns and cycles

 

Spring, summer, autumn and winter then spring again

Birth, life, aging and death, then life again

 

That we can (and should) protect creation

That we can (and do) harm creation

 

Not just the planet as a whole

But individual species

Individual animals

Even the human creature

 

But mostly we learn that life is flux

it is change

it is inevitable change

 

and we learn that much of the change we think is bad

is good

and much of the sameness we think is good is bad.

 

and we learn that we must look for Sacred newness

and embrace the change God is constantly introducing

into our lives

 

we cannot be like the religious elite of Jesus’ time (the Sadducees and Pharisees)

who struggled to embrace the fresh air of grace

we cannot be like the political right of Jesus’ time (Judas)

who wanted to impose their own version of change

(which was not change at all, but merely the same old thing)

 

we must simply follow

with eyes wide open

minds wide open

hearts wide open

hands wide open

 

and go where the King of Peace leads

which may indeed involve

“coming and going,

living and dying,

resurrecting and spreading seeds of new life”

 

but will always require

following

changing

and loving