LOVE NEVER ENDS

Seasons come and go, I know this. But whole seasons? It seems the field of my life- children and the joys and challenges of a young family are cut and dried - donzo! (as some of our boys say). The scythe of time has cut a swath that has left me stunned and somehow bereft. I long to create, recreate, gather up the threads of moments and days to make a new thing, but I have only this space to walk in. No threads, no hustle and bustle, just the stillness of this old field shorn of its plantings.

I can choose to walk in this new season with empty joyful hands once I mourn what has been gathered up to serve the world. I can release, yes, and let go, of course, but it requires a sacrifice of praise, for only in this holy way will they have the coveted wings to fly, leaving home, filling the world with their flight and their song.

For now, I can barely tiptoe on these empty places in my heart and find His song of love again. When I am still enough, when my ceaseless questioning -"Did I do enough, did they have enough, is He enough?" ceases, I hear Him singing over me:

"The Lord my God is with me; He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in me; He will quiet me with His love. He will rejoice over me with singing." Zephaniah 3:17 

So the labors of that intense season come to an end; but it was never about the labors, the fatigue. It was always about the love. Love never ends. And He sings over them as well.

Medicine from Sacred Writings;

"For not by laboring and sweating, not by fatigue and suffering, but merely as being beloved of God we receive what we receive."

St. John Chrysostom 

Homily on Matthew from the Fourth Century