Laughter, Joy, Forever

Today's readings are full of joy and as I look back on yesterday's "set your mind" message, they remind me of the hope and joy and peace that God wants for us.

The readings are :
Genesis 21: 1-7 - The long promised miraculous baby Isaac is born and Sarah says: "God has brought laughter for me: everyone who hears will laugh with me."
Psalm 105: 1-11, 37-45 - "O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. (vs. 1) "For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servants.  So he brought his people out iwht joy..."
Hebrews 1: 8-12 - But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom."  ("You’re God, and on the throne for good;
    your rule makes everything right." The message)

So I start this week with remembering the miracles that God brings to every life including mine. And I know that to begin with God is to begin with love and a sense of wonder.   I was drawn this morning to re read my underlinings from a wonderful little book The Way to Love by Anthony Demello.

The way to love that he writes about is a way of letting go of our attachments and living in the present moment.  He writes this: 
"God's kingdom is love.  What does it mean to love?  It means to be sensitive to life, to things, to persons, to feel for everything and everyone to the exclusion of nothing and no one."

"How can you come to possess this kind of love? You cannot, because it is already there within you.  All you have to do is remove the blocks you place to sensitivity and it would surface..
The blocks to sensitivity are two: Belief and Attachment.  Belief - as soon as you have a belief you have come to a conclusion about a person or situation or thing.  You have now become fixed and have dropped your sensitivity"
Attachment - First comes the contact with something that give you pleasure: a car, an attractively advertised modern appliance, a word of praise, a person's company.  Then comes the desire to hold on it it, to repeat the gratifying sensation that this thing or person caused you.  Finally comes the conviction that you will not be happy without this person for thing, for you have equated the pleasure it brings you with happiness."

"The symphony of life moves on but you keep looking back, clinging to a few bars of the melody, blocking your ears to the rest of the music."

 I know that there is suffering and disappointment with my life and every life, but I also know that it is our beliefs and attachments that get in the way of appreciating the joy of this day and the blessing of this moment.  And seeing what is right in front of us.

He ends the book like this
"It is enough for you to be watchful and awake.  For in this state your eyes will see the Savior.  Nothing else, but absolutely nothing else.  not security, not love, not belonging, not beauty, not power, not holiness - nothing else will matter anymore."

And so today, I pray for awareness and openness to the wonder, the miracles, the love that is here in this blessed life.