Great music always has a familiar sound to it. The melody sounds like something we have heard before even if we are hearing it for the first time. Great truths also have a familiar ring to them; because we already know these deep in our hearts. Looking at the awesome rock formations in the Fantastic Caverns in Kansas was for me a spiritual experience in a very material environment. I encounter God in my here and now. He has left so many signs all over the place for me not to notice him.
An open and empty space. Mineral-laden water dropping from the ceiling. In time, something of awesome beauty rises from the cavern floor. Same materials, same space, same time. And yet two totally different structures emerge. Equally beautiful, equally awesome, yet as like as chalk and cheese.
Two sons. From the same father. Born under the same circumstances. Reared in the same environment. Cared for with the same love and affection. Yet, one grows up prodigal and the other dutiful. The prodigal son discovers his father’s boundless love and mercy in the emptiness of his dissolute living. The dutiful son, so full of himself, failed to see the same love and mercy in his self-righteous obedience to his father.
It is only in openness and emptiness that I can grow spiritually. I must make open and empty spaces in my life to make room for God to come in. I need not leave where I am or what I am. God meets me in my here and now. In my wretchedness, there will be many opportunities for openness and emptiness. In my abundance, I have to take care not to be full of things that needlessly occupy space in my life, events that distract me on my journey and people that would lead me down the wrong path.
Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.”
Luke 15:1-32