We are destined for heaven, through the blessings of Jesus Christ. It is a choice He made available to us, but how do we make the best choices while we live here on earth?
I was reminded this morning that we are like fruit, of our parents and of God. Some fruit never matures, some is eaten by others, to help them grow, and some fruit matures to a ripe old age and falls to the ground to be fertile seed for new growth. Along the way of this growing journey, we will have some sufferings; storms will strike the tree.
Our life has a purpose, some way which God knows, for which we were created. We are part of a human family, with God as its Father --- and of each one of us. Even if we live alone in some monastic cloister in the desert, still our prayers impact others. Most of us though impact and are impacted by other people who pass our way. Some may only hear of or see something we did --- we may never know them --- and perhaps we may only reflect on something we heard which they did, but our minds and souls are impacted, and that impact is God’s grace working within us. He is part of our family, our lives, He nourishes or is the root of our family tree of life. He is part of every life, even if as unseen roots of our tree; but we participate in life together. We are His fruit, for without Him we cannot exist, and our actions in our lives help make us ripe fruit --- or not.
That purpose we have, that we were created for, can be re-directed by actions we take, and we might never achieve the full meaning of our life. The tree, God’s family we are part of, is not there for itself alone. The fruit is meant to be eaten by others, or ripen to the utmost and fall to the ground, seed for another tree, to grow the family. We, the fruit, are not meant for ourselves, yet that is the failure of many of us. We are like fruit that eats itself while on the tree (or prevents others of eating of it), until it decays and rots, and any seed destroyed before it reaches the ground. We think we are of great use --- for ourselves --- but we don’t see or pursue the bigger purpose, because it is hard. There will be storms which we must hold on through, and trust the tree will hold us.
We may look at ourselves and our opportunities and think it would be good to pursue things for ourselves alone. In the gift of our freedom, it is a choice we can make. But we’ll end up alone, dying on the tree. Wouldn’t it be so much more wonderful to be part of a huge and glorious forest that lasts forever? To be part of that eternal bliss, our choice must be to be the best we can be ---but for others, not ourselves. When our fruit is used, the end of our life, it can be a thing of great joy, for our fruit and its purpose continues, in others we have nourished.
Our journey on earth ends, and a never-ending one begins, with the One who makes all things on this earth grow --- with His Son/sun and rain, grace and love. We worry about our earthly journey. I now daily read some meditations called the Surrender Novena (You can see it at HealingHeartofJesus.com). The words of the meditation have Jesus talking to us, about our journey and the choices we make. Here is one I read today:
You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse --- to men themselves, trusting in their intervention; this is what hinders My words and My views. Oh how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and remove you from My protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. So, trust only in Me, rest in Me, surrender to Me in everything.
O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything! (10 times)
No comments:
Post a Comment