Image by Leopictures from Pixabay
I am starting the New Year with one of my favorite authors, Madeline L’Engle, and her book of reflections, Glimpses of Grace. The cover is worn and tattered but Madeline’s message is as fresh and relevant in 2025 as it was when her book was published in 1998 and when Jesus gave it to us nearly two thousand years ago.
Madeline begins the year with wonder and joy as it is found in God’s fabulous creation. “It is an extraordinary and beautiful thing that “…God works with the beauty of matter; the reality of things; the discoveries of the senses, all five of them; so that we, in turn may hear the grass growing; see a face springing to life in love and laughter; feel another human hand or the velvet of a puppy’s ear; taste food prepared and offered in love; smell – oh, so many things: food, sewers, each other, flowers, books, new-mown grass, dirt…” (pg.3)
Tom and I are visiting with our Vancouver grandchildren Lise (age9) and Alex (nearly 11) and their mom, Bonnie (Tom’s amazing daughter). The wonder of God is so apparent in these two beautiful children and their mother.
As I pondered Madeline’s words my mind shifted to the families we left behind in Ontario. Living there, Tom and I have three generations of beauty and wisdom, that includes my three adult children, seven adult grandchildren with spouses and partners, and three great grandchildren, new born Lana, Everett (2) and Riley (4). O God, I am filled with wonder when I consider the potential for kindness, goodness and love that is in all these children of our blended family.
Who are we that you give your hope and love personified into our human care? God’s creation of this world is beyond logic. It is mystery, true mystery.
We have truly made a mess of this world, filling it with the darkness of hate, violence, cruelty, destruction, and pollution. Still, God sees each tiny spark of kindness and love that glows dispelling the darkness surrounding it. God sees it all, and still God trusts us, all of us humans with more beautiful children, and another new year. With each new moment, each new birth we feel the Grace of God’s forgiveness and love.
Let us Start Fresh in 2025 with renewed determination to let God’s light shine through us to others. We want to choose to do what we can to enable all God’s beautiful children to build a new world full of harmony and love – a world that God has planned where peace abounds, food is shared until all have enough and ALL are loved. With God humanity can create a new world, full of joy, and laughter and love for all people. Let us sow the seeds of HOPE in 2025 with our own individual actions and love. May it be so.