Life is difficult and also very fragile. Life is precious not because it is unchangeable but because it is so vulnerable. I am one of a million possibilities and yet I am the one who made it. I could have died in childhood but I survived. Until the advent of modern medicines, thousands and even millions died from disease. A single weather disturbance can result in hundreds of people losing their lives and in thousands more losing their livelihood. The ancients, at the early stirrings of spirituality among them, sought to find the Source in Wind or Thunder or the Mountains or the Sun or the Stars. When he came to reveal himself to us, he came as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lain in a manger. Totally fragile. Totally vulnerable. But it is in taking up our fragility and our vulnerability and our weakness that he showed us that there is more to this life. When he was lain on the cross he showed us that life is stronger than death and that it is through sorrow that we find joy.
It is in times of sorrow and loneliness that I find the greatest joys like the presence of a loved one or the generosity of a friend or the loyalty and faithfulness of a community. It is in times of pain and suffering that I realize I am more than just my body. There is a spirit in me that is able to rise above the immediacy of my pain and suffering to see the bigger picture of a life undeserved but lived in love for and with others.
And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’ John 1:29-34