Gratitude

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” Ps. 23

It was a big day in our house, my eldest daughter bought her first car. She has been working a part-time job for a while now and saving almost every penny so that she could purchase something. With the help of her grandparents, she was able to get something that will last her for years. Just in time for winter. Yay, no more walking to work! God is so good and always provides.

Today’s readings are all about believing that God will provide. A line that I used to say all of the time and still do on occasion. I don’t worry as much though, my years have taught me not to bother. God will and does provide. Because of this, the line above really spoke to me today. A reminder that no matter what, with him in focus, I have what I need.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”

As I write this, I am thinking about someone I know who doesn’t understand this. Brought up in a world with more than everything provided, in a shallow mindset, left to fend for themselves when times got tough without any anchor or any understanding of life beyond how it looks on the outside. My heart breaks for them. It isn’t meant to be that way. I am sure it also wasn’t intentional. We all think that things will just fall into place even when we have created a false narrative that could never sustain itself.

To be spiritually starved is a cruel and avoidable thing. To not be able to connect with anything outside yourself in a real and tangible way is a form of torment.

We need to know to whom we belong.

“God will provide” was my mantra when I was this person’s age. It was the only thing that I knew in my very being. That I was not going to be abandoned, left adrift or forgotten. Without that I am sure I would have careened off some cliff of my own making. I knew to whom I belonged and I have never left his side.

How could I? I come from Love and I return to Love. God is Love.

I long to show, during this week of HOPE, just what is being given to us. Just how much we are loved. What beauty lies within that love. “Imagine a world where everyone knew just how much they were loved” is a magnet I have in one of my offices. When we know we are loved, we are able to more fully love ourselves, and in turn, another.

Imagine that world.

So as we move through this first week and quietly sit in our Advent moments, a good thing to do is to call to mind those who are a little lost, those who feel outside the sphere of the season and those who want something deeper and more meaningful. It is a harsh enough existence to try to go it alone. As I sit in gratitude, may my heart open enough to want to share the season’s gift with everyone who desires it, so that they too will see that in all things, God will provide.