Grace

Neighbors in a Snowstorm

/ pasterical / Leave a comment

“What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?” — John Steinbeck

Yesterday morning, as the snowstorm was in its last phase, I headed out to walk the dog.  Having hilariously engaged roly-poly style with the drift in my driveway the day before — which, thankfully, no one got on video — I opted to cut across the front yard to get to the street.  This involved drifts to my knees interspersed with open patches of grass, and it occurred to me that though walking through the drifts was more difficult, it was also more fun.  Memories came back of snow forts and snow shoes; of making a path through the unbroken snow and games of “Duck Duck Goose” and snowshoes and snow ice cream.  As I watched my dog, Izzy, romp with such joy, I laughed out loud as she ran with her head buried in the snow, having caught the scent of some wild thing.  Someone in a passing truck stopped to say hello and to exclaim on the beauty of the morning.

After returning home, I sat to do some writing, and soon I heard the scrape of snow shovels and then the sound of a plow.  I found my snow boots and donned a jacket and went out, grabbing the snow shovel on my way.  Neighbors were helping neighbors, clearing walks and digging out cars.  Introductions were made amidst the pushing of vehicles away from the curb where the drifts had captured them.  One neighbor made a joke about this type of thing not being in my “job description” and we all laughed.  But in reality, it is the essence of my work.  The “great commandments” are found in Matthew 22:  “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Beautiful.  Sometimes love comes wrapped in boots and mittens and looks much like a shovel full of snow.

May the love and grace of God rule your hearts, this week and always.

The “Punishment” of Childbirth

/ dgspearman / 1 Comment

My adult son, Colton, has been home this past week and when he’s here there are always bound to be interesting conversations. The unexpected always seems to pop out of his mouth and give me food for thought.  This visit was no different.

On our way to dinner one evening, we found ourselves talking about original sin, the pain of childbirth, and the connection between the two (based on Genesis 3:16).  I really struggled with that conversation, because my personal theology is not, these days, very focused on “original sin.”  And I can very honestly say that I never found any of the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth – not the morning sickness (that was with me, on and off, all day for three months), not the discomfort of scrunched internal organs, not the intrusive fetal hiccups (that always seemed to start in perfect synchronization with my desire to nap) or even breathing through the actual waves of pain that accompanied the labor contractions — to be in any way a punishment.  For me, it was all simply part of an inconceivably (no pun intended) miraculous process – full of love and grace.

Then, as is often the case, I opened up my daily devotional email the next morning to find thoughts that meshed well with the previous evening’s discussion.  The message for the day contained a quote from Philip Newell writing about Pelagius and saying that he “stressed not only the essential goodness of creation–and our capacity to glimpse what he called ‘the shafts of divine light’ that penetrate the thin veil dividing heaven and earth–but, very specifically, the essential goodness of humanity. Pelagius maintained that the image of God can be seen in every newborn child and that, although obscured by sin, it exists at the heart of every person, waiting to be released through the grace of God.”

Exactly!

As I tried (and continue to try) to sort out the conflicts of this one in my mind, it all came down to perspective and focus.  I am and have generally been more of a “glass half full” kind of optimist – looking for whatever glimmer of positive I can find in a situation.  The divine shafts of light were constantly shining through all the discomforts and inconveniences of carrying a developing new life within my own body.  It was less about pain and punishment and much more about the essence of God and Life and Grace and Goodness triumphing over the negative.  Admittedly, those “shafts of light” are probably more brilliant in retrospect than they were during the actual experience – but they were quite apparent to me nonetheless.

And doesn’t that seem like the right paradigm for all of life and living – focusing less on the punishments and imperfections of our existence and finding perspectives that bring more brilliance to the divine shafts of Light that are constantly beaming through our obscured views?  For me the answer is undoubtedly a resounding “yes!”

Thanks be to God – for Life, for Grace, and even for the so-called punishment of childbirth!