Aren’t mountain-top experiences the BEST??? Those moments that stand out in your mind… an experience that you keep in your heart and re-visit time after time because in some way it was TRANSFORMING…
Summer 2015, on a gorgeous day atop a mountain in Switzerland, I was on a hike with my daughter and grandchildren. Spectacular beauty! Switzerland! Family! All of that was wonderful...
BUT — the experience which was a true God-moment happened when I stood by the rushing brook, almost deafened by the sound of water rushing over stones…
I closed my eyes, drinking in that overpowering sound and imagined that water filling me up from bottom to top, drenching every pore of my body — AND my soul…
We can get dried out and dried up all too easily. There is a yearning — a longing — within EVERY person for connection with God… the Force… Infinite Love… Holy Presence — however you describe God… who is the source of our energy, our vitality, our Love… When our spirits are NOT connected, they get thirsty! It’s then that our souls begin to wither — and to dry up. When we don’t recognize that thirst for what it really is, we often look to quench it in superficial ways which ultimately never work — leaving us thirstier than EVER…
Our spirits are like living plants which are totally dependent on God’s “living water” for survival. The CHALLENGE is to be ever attentive to keeping our roots connected to the Source! And when they are —— we will be “green” and “juicy” no matter what life hands us. Consider a tree… if the winds and storms come, do the green branches fall off? Not usually… but the ground is always littered with the dried-out ones. The hymn FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH (click here to hear the lovely John Rutter version our choir will sing this Sunday!) speaks of giving thanks for “the Love, which from our birth — over and around us lies…” As the earth blossoms, God calls US to blossom — to grow — to flourish! To stay juicy !!! As Medieval mystic Meister Eckhart says: “ The seed of God is in (each one of ) US… The seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree… A hazel seed grows into a hazel tree… THE SEED OF GOD GROWS INTO GOD.” So… let’s stay JUICY, folks — so we can keep growing…