September 22nd, 2013 Commentary on Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--The-Created-Order-as-Sacrament.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=ZWeLF_KmaQI

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Sunday September 22, 2013

The Created Order as Sacrament

When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and the human became united.  This unity meant that all that is mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite now points to the infinite.  In and through Jesus all creation has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of God is revealed to us.

This is called the sacramental quality of the created order.  All that is--IS sacred because all that is speaks of God's redeeming love.  Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun, moon, and stars, and all the animals and people have become sacred windows offering us glimpses of God.

My Commentary:

This Sunday’s Nouwen is exceptionally poetic and really truthfully speaks to a way of viewing the world through our personal process of sanctification.  Living in the light of GRACE begins through a process of awareness and transformation.  This process begins as prayerful obedience towards deepening that relationship with Christ.  It is turning towards God through the heart.  It is beginning, through the eyes of GRACE to see life as sacred.  Sacred and sacramental—a weaving of God’s GRACE, our willingness, sacrifice and devotion fine tuning itself to being Christ Centered—To loving God and Neighbor in, with and under the stories/journeys of our lives.

The Kingdom of God is veiled by the efforts of the evil one’s rule upon this world. This rule is fed and encouraged by our idolatry of the self and its accompanying indifference.  The beauty of creation as seen from the eyes of innocence in the beginning before Adam and Eve sinned…  It is still there, and it beckons us to be seen through our open hearts tuning themselves to God’s will, living GRACE!  Jesus said: (Matthew 26-34) “²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  ^28b…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

God Bless Your Sundays!

Nicole Collins