Inspired by Scholastica

Stories permeate our lives. We hear stories from our families and friends about what is happening in their lives. We read stories to our children and read books filled with mystery, romance, and history.   We hear stories in sermons to teach us and programs to entertain us. Jesus taught important truths with stories or parables. He used the parable of the Prodigal Son to teach about unconditional love and forgiveness. He used the story of the woman kneading bread to instruct how we are to be leaven in our world. The woman seeking a lost coin and the Good Shepherd going after the lost sheep show how God searches for us when we are lost. Familiar images like a woman kneading bread or searching for a lost coin fill the parables in Scripture. Stories have a way of conveying abstract concepts and making them clear. They also make them easier to remember through the familiarity and even humor contained in them. Who could forget the mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, growing

Once stately and graceful full of impish gaiety, now bowed and turtle-gaited, she hobbles toward the chapel, wedded to prayer as a farmer to his plow, arthritic fingers finding the page, dimmed eyes searching for the words. She shuffles back to her room, too tired to read or knit, content to watch finches feed and leaves rustle.          Her mind wanders to former days when eager faces listened to her lectures on imagery and symbols, feasted on her lavish servings of Hopkins and Dickinson, relished her Irish wit and tales of life on a Kansas farm. She brightens when a visitor appears, a rare treat these famished days.

Wraithlike strands cradle the leaf caught unawares floating in the air, oblivious to things like spiders weaving webs, helpless in a sticky filament hanging from the branch. I thought of the psalmist crying, “Hide me in the shadow  of your wings!” God too can catch creatures unaware,  gather them into a warm embrace like an eagle  hovers over its little ones.  When we least expect, he seizes us and will not let go, enfolding us with loving care, knowing how fragile, how feeble we are. We cannot escape this nurturing, loving God who clasps us in his Spirit wings. Like leaves caught in a web,  we surrender to the Divine  Weaver,  sheltered from the raging storms of life.

Most of us are on automatic pilot much of our day. We waken to an alarm, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, grab coffee, drive to work, etc., without really thinking about what we're doing. It's good that we don't have to relearn routine actions everyday, but being alive ought to be more than that. We need to be aware of  our world. If we just go through the motions every day we are missing a lot. Each day is new and we need to see things in a fresh way. Beauty surrounds us if we take note of it. Whether it's new leaves on a tree, or a weed growing in a cement crevice, or longer days as winter wanes, there is cause for wonder. If we take a walk we are more likely to notice changes and drink in the splendors of nature. Also reading a book can make us conscious of the mystery of words. Even the smell of clean laundry can make us appreciate the marvel of automatic washers and dryers. Life in a monastery or a senior living facility tends to be very routine.