Adventures

Pumpkin on the Prowl

We are all making our way through Lent and into spring.... Pumpkin and I are finding our way through missing Katie. Pumpkin is exhibiting some very "dog-like" characteristics these days. I have to wonder if all that whispering that she and Katie used to do was really Katie passing along all of her secrets to Pumps. This is how you knock things out of Martha's hand - use your nose and be very persistent! This is how you stretch out in those patches of sunlight on the floor; this is how you lie under the dining room table; this is how you get under Martha's feet when she is cooking.... So Pumpkin seems to have learned well from Katie and she is determined to entertain me with her knowledge!

Today I was reading from a Lenten devotional by Henri Nouwen. Nouwen was so instructive in my life at a time when I needed to know that God loved me. His book, "Life of the Beloved" had a significant impact on my life. Today's meditation begins, "If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special."
Nouwen's undergirding principle is that each one of us is recognized by God as a beloved daughter, a beloved son. In the same way that God identified Jesus as his beloved son at his baptism, each one of us is also identified as beloved by God. It makes a difference if we believe that. It means, for instance, that when I talk to you, I must also identify you as beloved by God - you are part of my family whether you look, or believe, like me.

Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, JR, and many other "persons of reconciliation" recognize this undergirding principle of God's love. God doesn't just love me, the (relatively) good, white, Christian, woman. But I am God's beloved daughter who has many, many siblings. Never has this meant more to us in a world that grows smaller each day. My life is not separate from the life of my sister who suffers in Japan, or my brother who gets killed in Libya. The sin of apartheid where ever it occurs is my sin.

I think I have started preaching! Maybe I need to look for a pulpit?! Just be glad you aren't Pumpkin - she has to listen to me all the time. Well, enough for today all of my "beloved" friends.