Sacred Windows

I'm beginning to make efforts to start writing again. The last few months of life have been a constant stream of change and movement. But writing pulls my insides out and my outsides in. Keeping a journal is a way of putting my thoughts outside of myself so that I can see and experience them more fully.

I am often inspired by the thoughts of Henri Nouwen. I read this today and wanted to share it.

The Created Order as Sacrament

"When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and
the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and
the human became united. This unity meant that all that is
mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite now
points to the infinite. In and through Jesus all creation
has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of
God is revealed to us.

This is called the sacramental quality of the created order.
All that is is sacred because all that is speaks of God's
redeeming love. Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun,
moon, and stars, and all the animals and people have become
sacred windows offering us glimpses of God."

I work at the Early Learning Center at Lee University. I am blessed to spend my days loving children and tending to their needs. I work with the infants, and they are total joy to me. :) I'm starting to realize that my spirit has a lot to learn from them and from this experience.

Today I sat by the open door of our room. We like to prop the door open with a gate and allow the breezes and sounds of outside reach into our room, freshening and uplifting our space. Often this tiny experience of outside calms our babies and puts light in their eyes. As I sat, I held one of my little friends in my lap. He stood up facing me, looking out of the door behind me. His eyes lit up as he searched what he could see. Some grass on a small hill. A beautiful tree, full of still green leaves. Even though what he saw was not expansive, there being a street and a parking lot just behind the tree, he was still mesmerized by his small experience of natural beauty. An other little guy sat at the foot of the rocking chair, also gazing out, completely calmed by nearness to the beauty held there. Just earlier that morning he had been slightly upset, having trouble calming himself down. But now he sat. Calmed and comfortable. Near beauty.

I reflected with my coworker on my little friends' experience. It touched me to see their reaction to nature. I know that many find God's revelation in nature, but today I was reminded again of just why that is. Even little people, babies who can't talk or understand the Creator, can be profoundly impacted by His Creation.

It touched my heart today and, I think, sparked within me something that needed to relighting...the desire to Seek and be Found by the Creator who loves my self, and deeply blesses me with my little friends.

"...all the animals and people have become
sacred windows offering us glimpses of God."

How fitting that when I returned home, the Henri Nouwen thought centered on the Sacrament of Creation. I'm so thankful for the sacred windows that I am blessed to care for each day.