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: Become a passer-by

There was a saying in the early Church, attributed to Jesus, that we must "become passers-by" (Thomas 42). And that fits really well with our preparation for Easter. 
This is the month we remind ourselves that we are spiritual beings and that the little comforts of the material world are, in fact, without meaning. Traditionally we give things up for Lent, mostly to remind ourselves that we can survive very well without our pleasures and luxuries.
Created by a spiritual master, we are not to be a people tied to luxuries, or consumer or material goods. We are window-shoppers, passers-by. We are visitors, tourists, temporary residents. 
We are here on a visa.
We look, maybe admire the craftsmanship, but we know we do not own or possess, and must never treasure. This land was never ours. 
Creation belongs to only one: its creator.
And we need to work to become the person imagined by that Creator; and we do the work because we know that where our treasure is, there will be our hearts too.

Step aside, it is not yours. 
The things we are taught to covet,
nice to touch - but never ours.

Security, bank accounts, best house: 
never ours, but make us believe 
we are safe, secure, need never die.

Be passers-by. Look, use, 
but let them go. When I move on, 
they must stay. Ownership passes. 

Look, but pass it by.


Suggestions for meditations
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.
These are things that I have coveted in the past or still. What do you need to make you feel secure and safe?
If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest Luke 12, 22-34.
You can begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.
Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with the word Passing-by. Every time you drift off the word, gently remind yourself and come back to it ("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.