God's Smile

Does God smile?

It's an interesting philosophical question. My priest, in his homily last week, talked about God smiling.

At us. His creation. His joy in us when we succeed, when we honor God in prayer and in our lives.

Fr. Mike also suggested that when he was done creating the entire universe - God must have stopped and smiled. 

The thought of God smiling - made me smile. Naturally I thought of things like: the Platypus, a Bumblebee, the Carolina Wren. All of these make me smile...and God must have been tickled with himself when gazing upon the ridiculous cuteness of the Platypus.

And then I thought of other things that are evidence of God's smile - his smile of favor on his world.

Gulfoss Waterfall, Iceland

The breathtaking majesty of a waterfall.

The industry of the aforementioned Bumblebee on a stunning Sunflower.

Or the unparallelled symmetry of a delicate butterfly.

Each of these things comes from the hands of God. Surely he must smile at his ingenuity and beauty. Surely we must smile at his creation.

Which, in the grand circle of life, must make God smile...to see his creation smile.

A Picture

 

How many times do we do this? We pray, we seek God - and totally miss that he is there, all the time, all around us. There is that old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Maybe a flower is worth 10,000 words from God. Because the perfection of a single flower communicates so much about how much God cares for everything he created.

Including us.

For truly - we are never alone.

(image shamelessly stolen from a friend's Facebook page)

Centering

Time...is a thief.

It passes whether we pay attention or not. Time marches on (as the old saying goes) no matter what we may do to slow it down. Or even worse - wish it away faster.

Perhaps the most famous Bible verse on time is the poetic Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

The lesser-known verse in this chapter is the following:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I've mentioned before - God's Time. It encompasses, to me, all that is mysterious and wondrous about God. He has his own pace - did he really take only 7 of our Earth-days to create the heavens and the earth? I doubt it. I often think it may be that he took 7 of our Earth-minutes to do it - because he is God, omnipotent and all-powerful. 

I am believer that all things in the universe are connected in some way. Everything is energy so therefore everything has a common point even at the lowest (shall we say sub-atomic) level. God created it all, infusing his own energy into every plant, beast, rock, the stars, and yes - us.

We are governed by God's time and for us human - who come into this world with our egos fully intact - it's a hard thing to give over. But then again - giving over worries, fears, etc...to God is difficult even on our best days.

Anyway - lately I have felt a little ungrounded. Overwhelmed by the many demands of life these days. And not praying - because I'm so scattered and ungrounded - is clearly taking its toll on me. I am frazzled, confused, and feeling like I'm just drifting along with no guidance.

Yet the ultimate guide - the one who "...set eternity in the human heart..." is just there, not even out of reach. Always by our sides, God is there in the sunlight even on a cloudy day. All you have to do is let yourself go - release the tension, let go of the burdens we insist on toting on our backs every single day - and center yourself on God with a simple prayer.

Nothing fancy needed - just a small, single syllable word...

Help.

That's all. Can't be easier than that, can it? You could add in a couple of other syllables if you need to...

God, please help.

He will hear you even in that original single syllable. As soon as you say it you can feel your shoulders drop a bit. Maybe your jaw relaxes. Perhaps your stomach muscles unclench. 

For me - even my eyebrows settle down.

Help.

So simple. And yet so centering. Because so long as we keep ourselves centered on God, he will do all the rest for us.

It really is all he wants do to.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.