Saturday, November 19, 2016

Ordinary Miracles and the Ineffable Goodness of God

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the trees rising from the dirt are  miracles…that rain wetting the dry ground is a mystery…that man and beast moving across the earth are complicated beyond complete understanding. That the stars that swing across the night sky are impossibly far; impressively large, incredibly diverse. That even our familiar moon is held together and in place by the miracle of order. 

We go about our lives engrossed in triumph and tragedy, in bursts of activity and times of rest. In the routine of life, it's easy to miss that we are surrounded by mystery and majesty, order and chaos. 

Life on earth is comprised of individual elements and molecules that are organized by the miracle of life into living beings smaller than a gnat to as huge as whales.  From single celled creatures to those that are able to leave the planet, we the living are fantastically diverse, and miraculous.

From what comes the miraculous spark of life?  Even if the universe and all within it and all life originated in single event, a "Big Bang"…..how came the "trigger" to be fueled and what was the "fuel" for that bang?  

And what is the universe?  Is it without border?  And if it is, how far from the center of it is matter distributed?  Are there endless, mind-numbing distances occupied by nothing…no light, no matter, no anything?  And if there is, what is the purpose of that infinite nothing?  

I have pondered these things for six decades.  

Today, I have an awareness that God made all and is in all, and that He saw that it was good. 
I revel in His good presence in every leaf, every animal, in every drop of rain, in the air I breathe. 

As a child I knew of God. As an adult I know God. 
As a dark-haired youth I demanded answers to "how" and "why". 
As a silver-haired man, I am content that He Is, and that He is love.....and ineffably good. 
And that He will whisper the "what".