Within

At the end of my quiet time this morning, my eye fell on the Daily Bread. I had not opened this book since before World Conference, and it had migrated to the bottom of the small pile of books I am currently using for spiritual formation and reflection. Somehow the book called to me, so I pulled it out and turned to the reading for today, Thursday, April 29, 2010.

I discovered that today’s thoughts were prepared by a member of the Toronto congregation whom I have known for many years. Her piece speaks of a quiet revelation she experienced early one morning in which she was urged to “Follow the Light;” the title of her piece. The author shares how the guidance of that moment was confirmed to her over and over during the days that followed. Her writing reflects and conveys the quiet joy she experienced in that experience with God, and in the succeeding encounters.

As I reflected on her writing, I realized how little I really know this author. While we have encountered each other casually at church functions many times over the years, we have seemed separated by many factors such as differing generations, experience, and geography, all of which now seem artificial. We may have different experience in life, but we also have things in common. Chief among these is the universal longing after God that seems to be the human birthright. I now realize I am poorer for not having taken time to get to know her better.

This realization is a blessing I do not want to take lightly. Within each human breast is a heart that beats just like our own. Each of us have thoughts, feelings, and desires; we have more in common than we often realize. Our various backgrounds and experience prompt different ways of looking at the world, and if we are not careful, these can lead to walls of ideas that separate us and cause us not to see each other as the delightful child of God we really are.

May we look at every person we encounter today with open eyes, and see beyond the facade to the precious Child of God that lives within.

Posted by Carman