Serenity (10/17/2024)

The last three days have been distractingly busy in my life. It has been a good busy, but at times I’ve felt like a short order cook in a corner diner the morning the bus stopped. My husband keeps asking me what I did with his “retired wife.”  I just laugh and go on. This morning after running a 5:45 errand to take care of something I forgot to do last night, I settled in with the LORD on my porch for “wake up with the LORD” time. And there it was. The most beautiful and bright moon I can ever remember seeing. Suddenly, peace serenely washed over me. And I could hear the LORD tell my heart and mind, “Be still and know that I am LORD” (Ps. 46:10).

How does He do that? Am I the only one whom the LORD amazes? Surely not. But how does the LORD do it? As I sat looking up at the softly glowing, perfect orb, appearing so close yet so far away, knowing that what I see is being seen by the whole world. We are sharing this gift. Simultaneously, I felt so small and inconsequential yet so blessed and loved. Indeed, there is a LORD, and it is not me. And in my humility, I spoke out loud, “Yes, LORD, I see and I know that You are LORD.”

A wise woman once told me that the path to peace is the path to discovery of self and the LORD. She told me that they are tethered together, that we cannot know ourselves without coming to know our LORD and that we cannot know the LORD without finding ourselves.  This morning, sitting on the porch, looking up into the sky at that orb suspended by my creator, I myself felt held by the LORD. I thanked my creator for the beauty of this world, for the wonders of my life, and for His love which He has showered upon me since my creation. And I remembered Jesus’ words, “Ask and you shall receive” (Mt 7:7-8).

Our world is pretty crazy at times. Its pace blurs the essential. But we are not alone on our journey. Always and everywhere our LORD is and His power and presence to us comes in a myriad of ways. I pray that this day you have the opportunity to sit in wonder before the LORD, that your mind and heart together praise Him, and that you find the serenity we all seek that is found in knowing the LORD and who we are, namely His loved daughters and sons.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.