How adept human beings are at using their creativity – a
sign that they are made in the image of God – to distance themselves from God.
How closely virtue and vice are related.
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In late winter, the world is waiting.
Amid the rush of cars that hurtle down the street, the trees stand
silent, their branches bare, empty as a mother’s arms without her child. Waiting for the leaves to return.
Nature teaches me to wait.
Wait for snow to melt, wait for leaves to bud, wait for flowers to
grow. I do not like to wait.
Every now and then, when the road for a moment is silent, I
can hear the birds. Prophets of the
spring. I cannot see them except for the
occasional rattle of a branch. They make
the bushes tremble. Their chatter is a
harbinger of hope.
Teach me how to prophesy.
The prophets knew how to wait. We
don’t like to wait. But the whole point
of the prophets was to remind us that we are never settled. We are always waiting. We must remember that we are waiting. We are a people of anticipation.
How to combine: Prepare
the way of the Lord! with: Do not be
anxious; God will provide. What can
we learn from the trees and the birds?
Take what God has provided today and use it to prepare for tomorrow. If you do not have today what you need
for tomorrow, trust that it will come tomorrow.
But do not neglect to use what you have today.
One thing God provides: signs. The birds know how to read the signs. Do not be blind to the signs that God has
provided to prepare you for what is to come.
Know when to prepare for winter; know when to celebrate the arrival of
spring.
Perhaps this is why the prophets so often went out into the
wilderness: to learn from the patience of nature.
If we believe Jesus’ words – that God knows what we need
before we ask – then let us trust that God is
right now giving us what we need. Not
that He will give us what we need,
but that He is actively and always giving. Then the prayer becomes not one of petition: Please God, give me what I need, but a
prayer for grace: Please God, show me how
you are giving me what I need now.
The beggar on the sidewalk: He is God giving you what you
need. Perhaps he is God’s way of telling
you that you need to practice generosity.
The lost wallet lying on the ground: God is telling you that you need to
practice charity. A traffic jam: God is
telling you that you need to practice patience.
A missed opportunity: God is telling you that you need to treat all
things as a gift, not as something to which you are entitled. The gift of a few moments to spare between
meetings: God is telling you that you need to practice some act of faith, hope,
or love. Perhaps you are being asked to
pray, or to call your spouse, or to buy a cup of coffee for a colleague.
Pay attention to the signs.
Every moment of every day God is giving you what you need. The birds know this, as they prepare for
winter during the fall. They know that
God is giving them what they will need in the winter during the fall. Can we see that God is teaching us now,
through the little trials of daily life, what we will need to know if we ever face
a true winter of desolation?
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Thank God for the goodness He has allowed you to bring into the world today. To be humble, it's not enough to repent of your sins and lament your distance from God. To be humble you must also recognize the goodness in you as a gift of God's grace.
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