Day 182

Today's Lesson:

I will be still an instant and go home.

This world we seem to live in is not home to us. And somewhere in our minds we know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting us, as if there were a place that called us to return, although we do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds us of. Yet still we feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that we could say with certainty we are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.

No one but knows whereof we speak. Yet some try to put by their suffering in games they play to occupy their time, and keep their sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad, and do not recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet who, in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny he understands the words we speak?

We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home. He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in darkness what he cannot find; not recognizing what it is he seeks. A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind. He does not understand he builds in vain. The home he seeks can not be made by him. There is no substitute for Heaven. All he ever made was hell.

Perhaps we think it is our childhood home that we would find again. The childhood of our body, and its place of shelter, are a memory now so distorted that we merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. Yet there is a Child in us Who seeks His Father's house, and knows that He is alien here. This childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure forever. Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His Holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.

It is this Child in us our Father knows as His Own Son. It is this Child Who knows His Father. He desires to go home so deeply, so unceasingly, His voice cries unto us to let Him rest a while. He does not ask for more than just a few instants of respite; just an interval in which He can return to breathe again the holy air that fills His Father's house. We are His home as well. He will return. But give Him just a little time to be Himself, within the peace that is His home, resting in silence and in peace and love.

This child needs our protection. He is far from home. He is so little that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in us still abides His sure protection. We will fail Him not. He will go home, and we along with Him.

This Child is our defenselessness; our strength. He trusts in us. He came because He knew we would not fail. He whispers of His home unceasingly to us. For He would bring us back with Him, that He Himself might stay, and not return again where He does not belong, and where He lives an outcast in a world of alien thoughts. His patience has no limits. He will wait until we hear His gentle Voice within us, calling us to let Him go in peace, along with us, to where He is at home and we with Him.

When we are still an instant, when the world recedes from us, when valueless ideas cease to have value in our restless mind, then will we hear His Voice. So poignantly He calls to us that we will not resist Him longer. In that instant He will take us to His home, and we will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that we are at home.

Rest with Him frequently today. For He was willing to become a little Child that we might learn of Him how strong is he who comes without defenses, offering only love's messages to those who think he is their enemy. He holds the might of Heaven in His hand and calls them friend, and gives His strength to them, that they may see He would be Friend to them. He asks that they protect Him, for His home is far away, and He will not return to it alone.

Christ is reborn as but a little Child each time a wanderer would leave his home. For he must learn that what he would protect is but this Child, Who comes defenseless and Who is protected by defenselessness. Go home with Him from time to time today. We are as much aliens here as He.

Take time today to lay aside our shield which profits nothing, and lay down the spear and sword we raised against an enemy without existence. Christ has called us friend and brother. He has even come to ask our help in letting Him go home today, completed and completely. He has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that we return with Him, and take illusions as our gods no more.

We have not lost our innocence. It is for this we yearn. This is our heart's desire. This is the voice we hear, and this the call which cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with us. His home is ours. Today He gives us His defenselessness, and we accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle we have made. And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I read our local paper today and read about a letter to the editor that was written last week and this week's response to it, I'm reminded how many miracles are right in front of our eyes if we just had the wherewithal to open them.

Last week's editorial was about a teacher in the Washington, D.C. area who was asked to give the high school commencement address. He told the graduates to work hard and go to college otherwise they might end up in Fargo, North Dakota, which he called the "armpit of the nation" where the one mall had anchor stores that were a hunting store and an oversized Victoria's Secret, and where you could buy guns in grocery stores.

This week people are speaking up with their opinions about this teacher - and there are even some who agree with the teacher's assessment of our beloved city.

It's evident the difference between seeing the world through eyes of love and eyes of fear. Let's just take everyone's comments for what they are - not take things personally and just relish in the truth as we know it. That's certainly a miracle - to see the beauty and harmony when others see only "armpits." There is no need to sling mud or to counter with any comments at all. Let others see what they will see. As for me, I choose to see beauty and know the truth. And that makes me truly joyful.

We will see what we are looking for, no matter where we are looking.