“A Gift from God” by Colleen O’Sullivan
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.' For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? (Deuteronomy 4:7)
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done thus for any other nation; his ordinances he has not made known to them. (Psalm 147:19-20)
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)
Piety
Lord, may I always be open to the wisdom and grace of your law.
Study
Some people might read the words of the psalmist and wonder how anyone could see good in God giving “statutes and … ordinances” to Israel or anyone. Some of us live on the rebellious side and don’t want anyone suggesting or telling us what we should or should not do.
There are also some of us who’ve grown older, who, looking back, wish we had listened to our parents when we were younger. In the end, it turns out they weren’t so stupid after all. Maybe, if we had, we wouldn’t have hung out with the wrong people and gone done a self-destructive path. Maybe we would have studied in school and been able to get a family wage job. Maybe we wouldn’t have messed up our lives with drug or alcohol abuse or had a string of DUIs attached to our driving record. Maybe we would have spared ourselves a great deal of hurt if we had saved sexual intimacy for marriage.
And there are others of us who look back and fervently wish we had had parents who acted as parents and had cared about who our friends were, where we were at all times, and what we were doing. It’s difficult to parent ourselves in a vacuum. Some guidance would have helped a lot along the way.
God is the best parent any of us could ever know. God loves us and desires good things for us. God’s law is designed to help us live good lives. God doesn’t like to see us get hurt. Nor does God like to see us hurt each other. God’s law is truly a gift of love. God’s law isn’t a checklist for tripping us up. I can imagine God saying, “Here’s how to keep things straight and be happy. Know that only I, your Creator, am to be worshipped, so don’t get confused and start making false gods of anything else on earth. Treat your brothers and sisters as you would like to be treated. You will be blessed if you remain within these parameters.”
Action
We’re about halfway through Lent. I’ve been praying with Into the Wilderness, an Ignatian retreat jointly sponsored by Sacred Space and Pray as You Go, which anyone can have as an app on their iPhone. It’s not too late to pray with it. One session is released each week and you could catch up with ease. It’s amazing what can happen in the wilderness. No friends or family hanging around. No Facebook, text messages or tweets. Just you and God. In the wilderness, you could consider God’s law. Do you look at it as a gift? Do you think, as Moses points out, that anyone envies you your relationship with God, who is so close to you and who loves you so much? Do you try to live in accord with God’s guidance? Where you’ve failed, remember that Lent is a great season in which to seek forgiveness.
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