God loves us

I drove for a long time today behind a car with a bumper sticker which said: "Horses are God's way of telling us he loves us".

Since I was behind that car for 15 minutes or so in slow traffic, I pondered that sentiment. I think it is true. I didn't grow up around horses, but I was never far from them in my childhood. I learned to ride a horse quite young--and though it was a work horse I learned on I realized there was something remarkable about a creature that large that would do what I asked with my childish hands on his reins and my heels against his body. Riding a horse is a wondrous thing. And horses, in and of themselves, are remarkable. They are so huge, so intelligent, so social and their eyes and faces are so expressive that folks who know them well realize what a awesome gift they are.

My father, as a teenager, rode a horse to deliver the mail from Waiteville to Rocky Gap and Union. He went day after day--winter and summer--and the horse and he became bonded in a way it is hard for people who don't know horses to recognize and acknowledge.

I went to Maria's new house today and met with people I love from the staff at St. John's who I have hardly seen for a month and a half. It is difficult and problematic not to be welcome at the place I served and worked for 21 years. I understand the need for me to 'disappear' as the parish goes through what it needs to do to find the next Rector. And I feel left out and lonely because I loved those people so much for so long. So seeing the staff members was a gift to me--something like a proof that God loves us.

I gave Maria a card I found in my favorite gift shop that showed four young women from decades ago lying on their stomachs and toasting the camera with red wine. The card said:
"Wine is God's way of proving he loves us and wants us to be happy...." In vino veritas, I always say. Amazing how God's love shows up in our lives.

Sitting on Maria's front porch I heard dozens of birds and saw many of them. It's like that in our back yard--birds in abundance, lots of songs, flashes of color...birds, it seems to me, are a proof of God's love.

If you only sit still long enough and think about it, there are so many ways to know about God's love. Beauty, Hope, Poetry, Music, the face of One you Love....the air you breathe, the light in the early evening, the taste of melons, the moon and the stars....how come we don't realize how deeply and eternally we are loved by God? How come we don't?

That's what I ponder.....