Moved to celebrate

Blessed be the quiet of this morning.
Blessed be my coffee warm and toasty in my brand new mug.
Blessed be the flicker of my candle flame
the smell of jasmine rising from its warmth
the light, shadows dancing, upon the alabaster heart on my desk
Blessed be this day.

Blessed are the sparrows twittering in the tree
Blessed are their sweet voices
Blessed are the man and boy walking along the street
beer in hand challenging anyone to try and 'stop me'
Blessed are the lost and lonely
the connected and joyful
Blessed are the many and the few
who stumble and fall and rise up to walk again
into the dark night of their soul's awakening.

In the Lectio Divina course I am taking over this Lenten Period through Abby of the Arts, the facilitator, Christine Valters Paintner, asks the question this morning,"Do you feel moved to celebrate the God who is glorious and transcendent or the intimate God revealed in quiet moments?"

In my heart there lives the intimate God of quiet moments. The Divine essence of all that is holy and scared and wondrous in my inner world. It is the God of flowing rivers, of deep seas and quiet days where the wind whispers gently through cornfields and city streets alike. It is the God of deep thinking, of deep feeling, of deep faith unshaken by the toings and froings of the common day.

In my eyes lives the glorious and transcendent Being who spreads sunrise across the horizon. The God who fills the skyline with mountains that lay in razor back clarity, sprawled out across the western skyscape in their immovable majesty. They were once molehills rising up into fulfilment of a Plan to which only God knows its purpose. A Plan of grand design to fill our world with the wonder of mountain glaciers and pools of sparkling water. To create valleys and forests and snow-capped peaks where to stand upon their apex means to step that much closer to God and know the fragility of our human journey and its temporary state of being.

I cannot speak to rocks nor how the mountains formed. I can speak to God's mystery surrounding me with wonder and awe in the peaks and valleys of my human journey into myself.

I can speak to the deep, deep sinking into myself as I unravel the mystery of who I am meant to be when I let go of being anyone other than myself.

And I can speak to the wonder of being me. A unique human being amongst six billion fellow inhabitants of this tiny ball spinning through space and time, part of a constellation of planets orbiting the sun. A planet of souls struggling to divine the spiritual essence of being human -- in all our sorrow and joy, tears and laugher. In all our transcendence of life on planet earth.

This is a mighty world we live in and its mystery is found in quiet moments and in glorious times. Its mystical wonders are experienced with eyes shut or eyes wide open to the amazing grace of being alive in this time when the world is awash in light and darkness. When tears ebb and heartache flows. When tears abate and hearts break open in Love.

Its majesty is found in the killing of a man on the other side of the globe and the birthing of a child right next door. Its mystery is felt in war and in peace. In troubled waters and in calm.

Its beauty is found in gentle sunrise slipping over the horizon unseen by human eye and in glorious sunsets bruising the western sky in indigo and purple. It is felt in that place where blood flows in rivers of tears in Africa or into the vein of a junkie huddled in an alley of downtown Calgary.

His beauty is not of this world we have created. His beauty is of that other-world. That time and space where man awakens to the mystery and wonder of being human without the need to destroy all that is mysterical and mysterious in our being alive.

This is a magnificent world and we its inhabitants bear witness to its majesty when we rise up and celebrate all that is wondrous and magical and mysterious about being our most magnificent selves in a world of majesty and wonder.

Today is a day to celebrate. To celebrate the God of intimate moments here on planet earth and the God who is transcendant and glorious, who creates the majesty of our lives lived in human wonder of being alive in this special time and place where we can be our most magnificent selves.