Since this is the last
Reflection I will be offering you this year, I want to leave you with something
that might add a new dimension to your relationship with the Lord.
I had a conversation with a
friend yesterday. My friend is going through a particularly difficult time in
his life and he told me that he was having a hard time “finding and accepting
God’s will in all of this.” And it occurred to me that sometimes it might not
be particularly helpful to think of things in terms of God’s will—because more
often than not, we tend to shy away from His will, or find it somewhat
threatening or foreboding, assuming that God is expecting or demanding
something difficult or unpleasant that we have to “toughen up” and accept with
resignation.
The more I thought about this,
the more it seemed to me that it might be better to think not of God’s will but rather of God’s care. God cares for me. I have had
signs all through my life of the many special ways in which he has indeed cared
for me, and even in the most trying and difficult times of all, there he was,
taking care of me. Sometimes that caring may bring us through troubles and
trials and difficulties of all sorts, but we always emerge, somehow blessed and
well cared for.
Think of that, will you? That
through the circumstances of your life, right here and right now, God is indeed
caring for you and all you have to do is let go and let Him do His work in your
life.
I remember a time when I lost a
friend, and was grieving that loss, when I came upon an intriguing quote: “Sometimes
God removes a person from our lives in order to protect us.” Meditating on that
quote, I realized that the loss I was suffering was actually the result of God’s
direct care for me. And as time went by, I began to realize that the friend I
lost was actually toxic for me, and I was so much freer and better off once the
friendship had come to an end.
I also remember wanting
something desperately, and praying earnestly that God would allow it to happen,
and it didn’t happen. It took a little while before I could actually begin to
understand that his refusal to grant my request actually turned out to be an
incredible blessing in my life.
How about you? Might this notion
of God’s care for you help you to process whatever it is that may be
happening in your life? And think of that this Christmas, that God sent His Son
into the world so that through Jesus Christ He might best care for us all, each
and every moment of our lives, and even beyond the span of our earthly lives.
May the blessings and the care
of Christmas be yours in abundance this year. God bless you all.
Fr. Bede
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