May 15, 2022

The View from the Vicarage

May 15,2022

Resurrection happens. New life is born in the human soul, mind, and body. But it can often take

a long time before we actually begin to perceive, realize, and appreciate God's gift present in our

lives. Unless it leaps into our consciousness like a blow to the forehead when we suddenly see

life through new eyes, most times we go through our days unaware of our new life in God

blossoming within and around us. In my experience, resurrection awareness tends to emerge all

but silently, a quiet whisper of holy love. Then, like one nearly blind seeing clearly for the first

time, our understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit shifts, and we are gently swept

into God's time, kairos, for however long God allows.

This very reality flowed almost imperceptibly into my awareness this past Wednesday evening

through the gift of a bright moon shining in a clear sky, lighting up the old barn in the neighbors’

yard and dancing on the ground in speckled bits of light sneaking through the new leaves above.

Suddenly my mind was flooded with memories of a young man of long ago enjoying the same

moonlight splashing on a much older barn and under tall trees on a similar warm and clear night

while standing on the farmhouse porch outside his first apartment. Suddenly a moment of

knowing God’s peace during one of my several lifetimes past was not only reflected in my

present reality, but also somehow alive in that reality in new and astounding ways. Suddenly the

sometimes tortured path of a young 22 year old man was melded with grace and beauty into the

now 70 year old man’s awareness in a new place hundreds of miles removed. A connection

nearly impossible to put into words was forged by love and the circle of my life made whole in

the renewed experience of God’s gift of peace. Then and now, it’s all the same. It’s all one. And

my gratitude to our loving God grows ever deeper.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

And by Grace, we stumbling and bumbling children of God rise with Him—each and every day!

Alleluia!