There is more randomness to life than there is certainty. We are certain that they sun will rise again tomorrow morning and we plan and live our lives according to that certainty. We dream, we build and we create things we like. But all it takes is one financial bubble to burst and everything comes tumbling down. All it takes is one super typhoon like Yolanda and everything we have worked for is wiped out. All it takes is one diversion into Xavier School and my life is changed all for the better. Many of the people I know and love, I have never really planned on meeting. Some of those I have really sought out to meet have been a disappointment. Many of the places I have been to, I have never dreamt of visiting. and yet, I am now a better and happier person for having been to the places I have been to.
We are just travelers passing through in this life. We live in places we grow familiar and we pass through some that bring us a lot of surprises. Some people come into our lives as we into theirs. We share moments together and we are forever changed. We also meet other people, some for just a while, others for a little while longer. But they become a part of our lives as we become part of theirs. What I am and who I am could not have been possible without all these people in my life. I carry a part of them in the very fabric of my self.
In the midst of all this randomness and uncertainty, we can still see and find some reassuring patterns. In times and places of darkness, we seek and find the light. In cold times and cold places, we seek out and find warmth and comfort. In times when we are hungry, we seek and find food to fill the emptiness in our stomachs. In times when our hearts and souls feel empty, we seek and find that which will quell the emptiness inside us.
We stay. We linger. In places. With people. And it is in staying and lingering around places and with people that salvation comes to us. For in the randomness of things, there is also a certain serendipity where our coming together brings forth the light in our minds and kindles the love in our hearts and satisfies the emptiness within us.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. . . .
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today .” . . . .
Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”