I have always been aware of God’s presence in my life. I believe my life is a gratuitous gift from Him, undeserved, unmerited, unconditionally given. I love the episode where He became man in Jesus Christ and lived among us. Even today, His Spirit guides and directs me in my daily life.
My faith, like my life, is a gift from God. My feeble and finite mind can never hope to embrace the infinitude that is God. My limited mind cannot even begin to embrace the magnitude and plenitude of God. Unless He reveals Himself to me. My inability to fully comprehend God often manifests itself as doubt about what I believe in: Is God really there? Does He really care for me? Is He really the source of all the good things in my life?
Of the good things there in my life, there are three places where I would love to always be. I have been to many beautiful places where I have experienced God’s presence. But nothing beats these three.
I love being in other people’s memories. It is pure joy when Jane tells me, “Lolo, I thought of you in school today;” or when friends call up or send a note to say that they missed me or that we should get together again soon.
I love being in the prayers of other people. Space and time may often separate us from people we hold dear. But we can be truly present to one another when we pray for and with them. In prayers, nothing can separate us from our loved ones.
And I love being in the hearts of people whom I also hold in my heart. Distance or even death may take them away from me physically. But the persons that they are are alive in my heart. Nothing gives me a warmer feeling than knowing and being told I am in the hearts of these people.
Memories. Prayers. Heart. They are beyond space and time. That is where I always want to be with people I love. And beyond space and time is where I also truly encounter and meet my God.
LORD, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 144
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,
and the disciples were with him,
he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;
still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.
Luke 9:18-22