Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Dear God,

How wonderful it is to be welcomed by you each morning.  Your love, compassion and wisdom meet me just as I rise in the morning.  I always know there is much to look forward to in my day because you are with me.

Just today as I was driving home from an early morning doctor's visit, you brought to mind a stranger I met several years ago at a very remote monastery in northwestern New Mexico.  I will never forget our chance meeting.  We were just coming out of the service of compline in the chapel when I stepped outside and saw a frightening thing in the sky.  The stranger nearly bumped into me in the deep darkness and he said to me, "Have you never seen the Milky Way before?"  

We walked back to the primitive guesthouse together and I learned he was an oncologist from Denver, Colorado who travels to Christ in the Desert Monastery monthly.  For a few minutes he shared his story with me.  Many years earlier he lived in Germany in an apartment when a fire started in the apartment below him.  He had to jump out of a fourth-floor window.  With several broken bones it took many months to recover.  In the process he decided to become a doctor specializing in cancer treatment.  His faith grew and his repeated trips to the monastery helped foster his faith and his hope as he often dealt with dying patients.

This morning you brought him back to me so that I could reflect upon what faith and hope mean during difficult times.  I am so grateful.

Compassionate God,

no one cares

the way

you care.

Thank you

for caring

for me

this morning.

Bless all

who need

faith and hope

today.

Love, Andrea