Behind the bus stop near my physiotherapist (yes, I am back at it again – but that is another story), a huge excavation is taking place. A deep rectangular hole has been sliced out of the ground, a towering lattice work crane sits at its center. Silent today as it is Saturday, all that weekday busyness is enclosed securely behind a chain linked fence, that bulges right up to where I am standing.
At the foot of the pole that marks this as a bus stop, there stands a very old tree. Much mangled from the construction ensuing around it, and probably neglected for countless years before, it manages to survive. Some bark has been stripped off, there are dead branches, and the leaves are dusty. Yet it presses against all the stuff around it, new growth pushing up and beyond the overhead telephone wires to the sky and sun. At its base a mess of weeds and wildflowers all tangled up in bits of metal and broken concrete, but growing so lush and blooming as to almost conceal the debris.
On this hot summer day, I appreciate the beauty of the flowers and the shade of the tree. It reminded me to be grateful. I also appreciated the fact that no matter how we try to demolish it all, a tiny shoot will soon push up through the cracks and greenery reappears.
But it occurred to me that it is not enough to feel gratitude only as the moment presents itself to me.
We have lots of time to think at our bus stops, and get a good tan while at it.
I realized I need to put God into every moment, so He flows through my entire life, not just parts of it.
I believe that the entire universe operates on the principle of love. Not the mushy kind of love. Love as the creative life generating force. The tree of life. Love as abundance, creation, imagination, life, goodness, joy. The love that endures and perseveres. I call this love God. Not the omnipotent, controlling, Kingdom type God, of punishment and whatever else is so off putting about peoples ideas of God. But a God of love.
This love needs to fill my being so I am always in it, and not just reminded of it on rare occasions.
It is a good thing our buses take so long to arrive.