Sunday Musings

Because of the enormous amount of snow we received yesterday, I decided to spend my Sunday morning at home instead of making the drive out to Dousman to attend church. This morning is one of those slowed sabbaths . . .genuinely restful and even including a bit of family, as my brother crashed at my place last night because of working on written exams until 3 am. Outside, everything is layered in a 3-4 foot blanket of white and mounds have risen up along the sidewalks and driveways, reaching up to my chest. (Winter--how do people survive without it?) Inside, the sunlight pours through the windows and the dogs lounge around. Vegetable quiche cups are in the oven and I'm drinking tea, pondering what I read in Hebrews and Psalms this morning.

The first, from Psalms 135:

"GOD, your name is eternal,
GOD, you'll never be out-of-date.
GOD stands up for his people,
GOD holds the hands of his people.
The gods of the godless nations are mere trinkets,
made for quick sale in the markets;
Chiseled mouths that can't talk,
painted eyes that can't see,
Carved ears that can't hear--
dead wood! cold metal!
Those who make and trust them
become like them."

And out of Hebrews 8:

"Heads up! The days are coming
when I'll set up a new plan
for dealing with Israel and Judah.
I'll throw out the old plan
I set up with their ancestors
when I led them by the hand out of Egypt.
They didn't keep their part of the bargain,
so I looked away and let it go.
This new plan I'm making with Israel
isn't going to be written on paper,
isn't going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I'm writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I'll be their God,
they'll be my people.
They won't go to school to learn about me,
or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They'll all get to know me firsthand,
the little and the big, the small and the great.
They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean."

A couple of things move me with these two passages. First, the idols. Second, God's "livingness" known through the act of forgiveness. In contemplating my idols . . .they're more conceptual than a literal statue I bow down to on a daily basis, but they create death in the same fashion. Living for an illusion instead of engaging a God who is already active and at work in the world surrounding me . . .why do this? And I think of the transformative work of forgiveness, how truly profound and powerful it is--surpassing powers of control, judgment, the personal conviction of being right and feeling wronged.

So this is my task today, to contemplate my idols and see how they've manifested themselves into my way of thinking and perceiving the world, and to then look for God in me, carving a niche into my heart like the kids building snow forts outside.