Sabbath Messages | Sabbath Message: April 17, 2004
Good Sabbath
April 17, 2004So many years ago, I ran up the stairs of Cedars Hospital, in L.A., to greet my first child, my son Steve. If I could recapture the thrill of that moment, I could bottle it and share it with all lonely or unsure humans who need it. The memory is brought back by the fact that Steve's son, Robbie, prepares to go to Oxford University, for the summer of' '04, having just celebrated his 24th birthday. Robbie is in law school, nervous about not being the wisest, nor the most articulate at his young age. Yet he has a clarity of mind and a conscientious purpose that we wish all who enter the justice system might also have.
Thank You, O Lord
For the passing years
A rapidity that befuddles
The passage from baby to grown-up
The wonderment of "where it all went?"
Yet knowing that it went well.
My soul reaches out to those who have lost their children to war
To accident
To the unexpected that accompany life.
Every time I see a photo
of lost child or soldier
I bring them into my soul
To ease the suffering of a bereft parent.
A parent is punished by loss
Yet it is not punishment;
No, it is the mysteriousness of Madam Fate
Whose choices always fascinate
and irritate
and hurt
and leave us wondering "why?"
On the way to pick up my first son, the new nurse and I witnessed a delivery truck being struck by
a car that had raced through a signal. I imagined the spouse of the driver received a call that informed her of the totally unexpected loss. The nurse, who had lost her husband in the same manner, was momentarily traumatized, but became an excellent nurse to my precious family. I could only think of the wife listening to the caller. I've always been blessed and cursed with a sensitivity that carries pain and celebration, an ability to get into the minds of living and dead souls and carry their message back to the living whom they had left and loved.
Yet, sensitivity is not all blessing when suffering is part of the feeling, for here is so much that carries through life. We must all try to comprehend when someone needs our love and kindness, particularly when they are at their loneliest. How many movies have we watched, where the minister tells the survivors that "it is God's will", as the survivor tries to understand what that means; how can God be so cruel, to take so many away, at the prime of their lives, to leave such sorrow instead?
If we believe in "heaven", as well as punishment, we know that the child is forever in the arms of the God in whom we believe and the Deity Whom we trust. Otherwise we believe in nothing. You see, life is a poem, it is the music, and Fate is choreography, with God arranging the music. Such endearing possibilities exist despite the realty of cynicism and savagery that we must--each of us--separate from our trust in a God of kindness, from a deity of slaughter, who selectively breaks the hearts of parent and child.
Most religion is a failure because it is neither human nor humane. It is ruthless in its interpretation of a kind of God, rather than a kind God, setting up fear of the unknown. I have known so many who are afraid for they wait to be punished for the foolishness of joy and celebration. That cannot be my God. God loves joy and the joyous.
But this I believe, that there is a God of kindness and understanding, Who patiently waits for each of us to discover--not just memorize--sayings and values. The brain was created to understand, not to memorize; the soul was created by the rare partnership between God and humans so that they truly love and appreciate each other, and all who have been created by God. I believe that God is kind and waits for us to discover who we are before we can discover Who He is.
God of heart and soul
I thank Thee for each
For each makes me into the human You alone created.
Make the Sabbath the time to comprehend that good is possible through goodness, ours.
sandy
