Adoption - A Reflection of God's Love

Canadian Goose with Mallard hen and ducklings, Olympia, WA USA

Can a goose point us toward the good, the true and the beautiful?

Several weeks ago I noticed this goose hanging around a bunch of ducklings.  Over the next several weeks I noticed the goose accompanying the mallard hen, having “adopted” the ducklings as her or his own.

I did a bit of research and found out that Canadian geese mate for life and both the male and the female love parenting, often adopting ducks and other geese that are not their own.

Adoption is beautiful as it is an act of love and reflects the characteristics of God.  God loves us and has adopted us as sons and daughters.

I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.  2 Cor 6:18

A special thanks to all of you that have adopted children, you truly reflect God’s love by your actions.

He Dwells Within Us

Flowers, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, B.C.  Canada

The Christian has God dwelling within.  Ponder that.  What does this tell us about God?  What does this tell us about us? What responsibilities does it place on us?

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

What glory does it foreshadow for those that listen to the Spirit and follow Christ?

Up to Heaven

House wren leaving nest, near Chatfield Reservoir, Colorado, USA

Christ’s ascension into heaven is is a good reminder that we are pilgrims on this journey, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).

“A pilgrim awakens each day with a grateful heart and allows God to direct his or her way.” (Matthew Kelly)

Awake O'Sleeper

Lizard, Joshua Tree National Park, CA USA

Awake!  Look up!  Your life is not just about you, but something much, much more.

What are we to awake from?  In the early fifth century, way before the internet and modern conveniences, St. Augustine saw that people were preoccupied with themselves.  He called this tendency “incurvatus in se” or a turning inward on oneself.  Augustine knew we were made to be in relationship with God, and with each other, and when we turn in on ourselves, and seek only our own pleasure, we become less alive.

So let us arise and live the great adventure, the mission that Jesus rescued us for, to love God and each other with complete, selfless, self-giving love.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” - John 15:9,10-11

Make your joy complete.  Love as Jesus loved.

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.” - John 15: 12-13

Let us live in the light of God’s love and love as Jesus loved, laying our lives down for God and each other.

Grace Surrounds Us

House Finch, Pueblo West, CO USA

God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work - 2 Corinthians 9:8

God’s grace surrounds us in ways we might not expect.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic, late for a meeting and felt your blood pressure rising?   Instead of honking your horn, how about thanking the Lord for this opportunity to grow in patience?  God’s grace surrounds us.

Have you ever wanted to win a game against an archrival, only to loose.  Instead of getting upset, thank the Lord for the opportunity to grow in the virtues of self-restraint and humility.  God’s grace surrounds us.

I have found that God’s grace surrounds us even in the most challenging of times.  In the death of loved ones, with God’s grace, we have the hope of seeing our loved ones again in heaven.  God’s grace surrounds us.

Even in pain and suffering, God’s grace abounds. Jesus turned the tremendous pain and suffering of the cross into love, resurrection and life.  With God’s grace, and by uniting our suffering to the suffering of Jesus on the cross, our suffering can be the most powerful of prayers.  Just look at how the suffering of the early Christian martyrs changed the course of history.   God’s grace surrounds us.

From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace - John 1:16

His Victory is Our Victory

Wood of a Jeffrey Pine and large boulder, near Tahquitz Peak, CA USA

All has changed.

The veil has been torn.

We can see our destiny.

We are free.

Free to live as we were created.

Free from the fear of loss.

Free from the control of selfish passions.

Free from the fear of death.

We now live as adventurers journeying toward our heavenly home.

Living with joy.

Seeing God’s beauty all around us.

Giving our lives away in our one true passion, love of God and love of neighbor.

All has changed.

“You changed my mourning into dancing;

you took off my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness.

So that my glory may praise you

and not be silent.

O LORD, my God,

forever will I give you thanks.”

- Psalm 30:12-13

Divine Mercy

Jeffrey Pine, Mount San Jacinto State Park, CA USA

“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.” - Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:20

Worthy is the Lamb

Tulips, Skagit Valley, WA USA

Let us join voices with the angels and saints in heaven and sing, “Alleluia, He has Risen!”

“The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen and to become witnesses of his Resurrection.  This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia.  It is a returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.”

   - Pope Francis

The Way of the Cross

Trail, Squaxin Park, Olympia, WA USA

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.

Because, by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.

My Lord, Jesus Christ, 

You have made this journey to die for me with unspeakable love; 

and I have so many times ungratefully abandoned You.  But now I love You with all my heart;

and, because I love You, I am sincerely sorry for ever having offended You.

Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany You on this journey.

You go to die for love of me; 

I want, my beloved Redeemer, to die for love of You. 

My Jesus, I will live and die always united to You.

- Saint Alphonsus Liguori

I Will Come to You

Western Hemlock trees silhouetted against backdrop of Mt. St. Helens, WA USA

The top of the mountain is so far away, yet he is near.

It is his path that we follow.

His way that we walk.

Though the days may be cold, he warms us.

Though the mountain may be steep, he comforts us.

Though we may fall, he helps us up.

So we walk on, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

Knowing one day he will pick us up,

and on that day he will carry us home,

to the mountain top,

and we will dwell in the house of our Lord forever.

Amen

Poem, “Our Mountain Journey”, see John 14: 20-21, Hebrews 12:2 and Psalm 23

A Little Flower

Trillium Flower, Squaxin Park, Olympia, WA USA

I live at the foot of cedar, fir, hemlock and maple…. yet God sees me.

Each spring, as cherry trees and magnolias are covered with flowers, I sprout from the earth.  Looking up to heaven, with my one tiny flower, I shout “I love you God.”

Then as the maple wake up covering the canopy with giant leaves, I fall to the ground, in peace, knowing I did God’s will.

I did my part of God’s plan to the full, that is enough for me.  That is enough for God.

Poem of the Trillium, a little flower

The Way

Nature Trail, Millersylvania State Park, WA USA

The Way is not simply a walk in woods but a journey with the One that helps us carry our cross.

The Truth is that we are beautiful, but broken, and there is no one that can completely heal us except the divine physician, Jesus.

Life, despite its brokenness, is beautiful and sacred  because of Jesus, the one that turns sorrow into joy, confusion into understanding, and death into eternal life.

A Psalm of a Tree

In the Pacific Northwest we are surrounded by beautiful trees.  The following short video expresses a Psalm from a tree’s perspective.  Hope you enjoy it and hope it helps you on your spiritual journey.

Psalm of a Tree

I look up to heaven with faith,

Trusting that the sun will again warm the earth,

The days will continue to grow in length,

That spring will come again.

I will then praise the Lord with leaves, with flowers, with seed.

I will praise the Lord by befriending birds, squirrels and all sorts of creepy, crawling things.

And when my days are over,

I will trust in the Lord as I fall down to the earth,

I will praise the Lord, I will forever praise the Lord.

Create in me a Clean Heart

Carolina Wood Duck, McLane Nature Trail, WA USA

Late last summer this Wood Duck was drab, having lost all his primary feathers after the mating season leaving him flightless, but as spring approaches he now looks like a new creation.

Like the Wood Duck, Christians are a new creation but they are also a work in progress.  Christian hope is that one day by journeying with Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we might be able to join St. Paul in saying “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”(Gal 2:20), thus reflecting the fire of God’s love into a world in need.

Least Among Us

Rough-skinned Newt, Mima Falls Trail, WA USA

Barbara heard the knock on the door.  It couldn’t be Fred and Anton, they were out walking along the tracks searching for pieces of coal that might have fallen off the train.  They would need the coal to stay warm this winter.

She opened the door.  An older man greeted her with a wide smile that almost covered his unshaven face.  A young man stood several feet behind him, his head hanging low.

“Good afternoon, Ma’am,” the older man said. “We was wondering if you might be able give us a bite to eat.”

“Sit down on the steps, it will be a few minutes.”

This is a true story, during the Great Depression, Barbara and others like her, gave from the little they had to serve the poor.

“If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:15-17).

Who has God placed on your “front door step” needing to be served?

Your Light Must Shine

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, McLane Creek Nature Trail, WA USA

All of our acts of kindness should be done with humility knowing that “all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”(James 1:17).

“If you imitate Him(Jesus), you are not walking in darkness, but you will have the light of life.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153 AD)

Let us reflect our perfect model, Jesus, in every humble act of kindness we do.

Love

Carolina Wood Ducks, Eagle Lake, Western Chehalis Trail, WA USA

God desires that we share the intimacy found in his love with each other.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” - John 3:16

“To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire. 

Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake.” - Bishop Robert Barron

Dwelling in Me

Greater Yellowlegs, Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, WA USA

“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” - John 14:23

Jesus is within us.  Waiting to talk to us.  Let us take time each day and find a quiet place, as Jesus did, to talk to our God, our savior, our friend.

he (Jesus) would withdraw to deserted places to pray- Luke 5:16

Rejoicing in the LORD

Sunrise, Galveston, TX USA

“I am blessed,” Father Jim replied from his wheelchair, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, as I walked into church.  This was Fr. Jim’s customary reply to my inquiry as to how he was doing.

Fr. Jim was a vibrant man in love with Jesus.  Fr. Jim knew that although he had ALS, the disease did not define him; rather it was Fr. Jim’s love for Jesus, which radiated into every aspect of his being, that defined Fr. Jim Lee.  Rejoicing in the Lord was Fr. Jim’s strength.

“Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again: rejoice!”  (Philippians 4:4) These words were written by St. Paul while he was in prison but they could have been the words of Fr. Jim, for the Christian is not defined by his or her circumstances but by the love of God that dwells within them.

God loves us, so let us rejoice in the Lord always!

The Lifting of Clouds

Hood Canal as viewed from Potlatch State Park, WA USA

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” - Hebrews 11:1

Our Christian faith opens up new horizons even in the most troubling of times.  For the last couple of years I have battled both heart issues and cancer but, through the gift of faith, I knew God was with me.  Knowing God was with me then gave rise to hope, hope in Christ’s promise of our eternal home.  Christian hope removes fear and gives us peace.   Living in peace then enabled me to love, taking my focus off myself and onto the caring of others.  And amazingly, caring for others brought me additional peace.

My heart condition has resolved and my chemotherapy is completed with my cancer in remission. I give praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for healing but especially for the virtues of faith, hope and love that can lift every dark cloud.

May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you.