Meditation: Another dead child

When I look at a new child
   full of life 
   and trust 
   and hope
   and potential,
I wonder about the children in the world
now damaged or lost forever
who were given to us - sent, maybe to save the world.

No child is ever mine. 
I am trusted to be a steward, 
to care for, love, cherish, nurture - but never own.
How can we own a child? How can we own land?
What God created is not ours. 
We are the trusted stewards, appointed by God. 

We own only the immortal things we create - things 
we can take with us when we cross the bridge home.
Our Creator has been gone so long from our lives 
that we have come to assume our God has died, 
and so we have inherited the land and people, 
the trees and wildlife, to use as we wish.

Think again! 
Our Creator never left: always home in the kingdom within, 
but too often ignored because we are deaf to the words, 
too busy to see the beauty, 
unable to confirm the fleeting intuitions 
and hints, and moments of awe we feel, 
but cannot measure or record. 

A child, a tree, your life's path, your very self -
all gifts to point the way to the truth of our responsibilities
as guardians for our Creator:
   to love, 
   to cherish,
   to protect,
   to nurture,
each being that belongs to God.

... for Ihaka Stokes, died Christchurch Friday 3 July 2015 aged 14 months. 

Suggestions for meditation
Always begin by offering your time to God: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time when I am reaching out to you" and then a few moments reminding yourself of some of the blessings God has given you - the clear signs of God's love for you.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for Jesus' personal message for you.

If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest Genesis 1,26-31

Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.” So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them, and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals. I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food”—and it was done. God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased. Evening passed and morning came—that was the sixth day.

Read this passage or the meditation slowly a couple of times.

What word of phrase jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with those words, or the word LOVE. You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds. After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen. 

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: First day of holidays

One of the incidental characteristics of teachers around the world is quarterly exhaustion. Four times a years we see teachers work themselves to the point that they are mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. And then, they develop ways to recover all that and return to school re-created and re-energised for the new term. Amazing!

For now I am fully involved in life wearing a body,
and right now my body is sagging, 
my emotions are drained, and
my brain is thinking trivial fleeting thoughts.

But I visit my granddaughter and my heart fills.
First there is the shy re-introduction, the coy half-smile, and hiding behind her mother.
Curiosity and courage grow, 
and soon there is the hug, and maybe a kiss. 
Within hours I find myself going for walks, feeding ducks, singing silly songs, and even tolerating messy eating.

This is the cycle of adult life: 
synapses slow, endorphins lose their potency, muscle tires, 
but love takes us past our physical limits.
Love brings hope, and takes us beyond our margins
to glimpse the amazing beings we are at heart.

This is Creation's lesson.

We see the same rebirth in gnarled ancient trees - 
too old and tired to thrive,
standing solitary above the competition for light, 
merely surviving - for the last hundred summers.
But a new seedling re-ignites flowering: 
after a century of standing alone, suddenly the old tree is re-born, 
thinking again of new generations. 
Re-created. 
Alive.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time when I am reaching out to you" and then a few moments reminding yourself of some of the blessings God has given you - the clear signs of God's love for you.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for Jesus' personal message for you.

If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest one of the stories where Jesus gives life, maybe one of the stories in Matthew 8, maybe the first three verses.

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Read this passage or the meditation slowly a couple of times.

What word of phrase jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with those words, or the word LOVE. You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds. After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen. 

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.