Dear Friends,
This morning when I was dropping my daughter at her "school", the in-home daycare where she and Sage have spent her earliest years, she walked in and immediately grabbed her friend, Liam's blanket. And, we know that for two year-olds blankets are prime identifiers of security and safety. Ms. Carol kindly and calmly addressed Quinn, asking her to return the blanket to Liam, and then redirected her towards her own blanket which lay just a few feet away on the shelf. "Yay!" She squealed; and throwing herself onto the floor, she wrapped herself in her blanket, in the love and safety that it represents. Liam joined her on the floor and together they laughed and giggled and cuddled wrapped up in all that felt like home. All was well again!
As I have been reading through Jim Antal’s book, Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change, I am struck by how easily we have chosen the narrow-view of life. Having lost touch with our greatest and truest love, our real source of security in this world, the one of a Creator for her beloved children, we have instead taken for ourselves what we think is ours, and as time fiercely passes by, we are less and less able or “willing” to redirect our energy that all might have enough, that God’s beloved creation might live and grow.
In his book, Shelter: Finding a Home in the World, poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama reminds us that, “Belonging creates and undoes us both.” Just as we struggle to find a home in God’s love alone, we struggle to see ourselves as worthy of that love and so fill our days and time and hearts with things that seek to undo us at every turn.
Might we, instead of taking what is not ours for fear of losing our place, find security and a new sense of belonging in the call to provide shelter to an aching, changing, broken “home”. If we listen closely, we can hear it: the rocks are crying out.
Creator God,
Draw us ever close that we might find shelter in your love alone. Give us the strength and courage to join you in making this beloved world a safe and beautiful home for all. Amen.
May Spirit Lead the Way,
Rev. Jenny Schultz-Thomas