By Beth DeCristofaro
This word of the LORD came to me: Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, … When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome. (Jerimiah 2:1-2, 7)
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. … “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:7, 16-17)
Piety
Study
Have you seen the news video of two police officers standing, talking beside their patrol car when a second car plows into it? No one was hurt but the driver of the second car admitted that he was playing Pokemon Go while driving.
On a recent flight, I noticed a passenger who had to be physically jolted so he would put away his electronic device on landing. He was so intent on the movie he was plugged into that he did not hear several flight crew announcements.
While on an incredible whale watching excursion I commented to our young, enthusiastic naturalist how much I appreciated her extensive knowledge of whales. She thanked me and mentioned how disappointed she is when people focus on their cell phones during cruises rather than on the wildlife around them.
We can get so distracted that we cannot hear, cannot see, cannot feel the incandescent presence of God who, in fact, is closer to us than our favorite pastimes, our personalities, our friends, our political obsessions, our fears and anxieties, our money our earbuds or anything else. How sad to think I would have missed seeing Granny, the 104-year-old matriarch of her Orca pod and her adopted son Ruffles’s mighty, 6-ft tall dorsal fin sliding majestically through the water!
Action
We grow in the Spirit as we accept God’s abundance. We lose ground in our spiritual life when we do not hear, see, act upon. What graces of God are you missing? What divine surprises might be right under the waters of our distracted days? Today pause, even if only mentally and in spirit, to really look, closely listen, attend to your heart and absorb God’s presence in each moment.
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