Thursday Thoughts

I wonder why you care, God--
why do you bother with us at all?
All we are is a puff of air;
we're like shadows in a campfire.

I was reading Eugene Peterson's version of Psalm 144 -- just opened up The Message to a random page -- while I waited for my computer to find the website I wanted. And these four lines grabbed my attention.

Like shadows in a campfire... quite an image. Ever felt that way? Like your life and all its accomplishments were as lasting as the illusive shifts of flickering flames?

It's a humbling thought. Humbling can be good in small doses. Depressing in large doses, sure. But I don't mind being humbled if I can feel safe at the same time.

If I'm meeting with my boss, and she's someone I greatly admire, I'll feel that appropriate humility, since she's in the big time and I'm doing the small stuff. If she's one known to throw around her power, that humility is a frightening, smallifying thing. But if I know her to be compassionate and fair, someone I deeply trust, someone who's doing an incredible job at her level while respecting my contribution as well... then the humbling feels right.

Today I'll be packing up the tent and sleeping bag to do some camping over the weekend. One of the things I most look forward to is sitting by the campfire, feeling that sense of utter calm, mesmerized by the dancing flames. Loving the beyond-description beauty. Each flame, each shadow, contributing it's own illusive color to the canvas.

I wonder why you care, God... Are you mesmerized by the dance of humanity, by all of us individual flames, so fleeting, so small, yet each distinct in its beauty? How amazing you are that you can love us, each one of us, and treasure us in your heart. I can't fully understand you, but I can trust you. I trust you to hold little me as precious, to value my contribution to the whole. Help me hold on to this trust, to feel safe, to know that even though my life here on earth is short, that my life in you will dance on and on...

If you find some time this weekend to sit quietly and imagine your place, and God's place, in the universe... I hope you'll feel free to share your musings here. Have a good one.

Peace,
Kari