An outlaw got lost in the desert and was very glad to find shelter in a hermit’s cave. The hermit welcomed him, gave him his bed to sleep on, and the next day invited him to stay in the desert.
Obviously uncomfortable with the idea, the outlaw asked, “How do you manage to live here alone? Don’t you get bored?”
“Yes, sometimes I do, but then I go and look out of that window. Go and look yourself and tell me what you see.” The window was a small hole in the roof of the cave.
“I see nothing,” answered dryly the outlaw, as he arched his head up towards this small ‘window’.
“How is it, nothing?!” asserted the hermit.
“Nothing, I tell you! The only thing I can see is a fragment of the sky.”
“That is all! That fragment of the sky is enough for me.”
Because in that fragment of sky lives the Beloved. And so life becomes a love-adventure. And a love-adventure is never stifling!
Simple logic!
Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Especially if the beholder is a lover…
During her last illness, Sister Therese of the Child Jesus was in the garden looking at a hen who was scratching up insects for her chicks. At once Therese’s mind turned towards the tender love of God, as she began reciting under her breath the Our Father.
Suddenly she started sobbing!
“What’s wrong, Sister? Are you in pain?” asked her companion.
“No, as I was looking at the chicken, I was reminded of Psalm seventeen which says, ‘Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings.’ Is it not beautiful to know that we are under the shadow of His wings? Similarly Psalm fifty seven says, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.'”
A plan for life … to live in the shadow of the wings of God.
Rather exciting, don’t you agree?!
On the eve of the profession of her vows, Therese told Jesus that she wished to have a white mantle on the ground like the dress of a bride. She loved snow and she wished that on the day of her wedding with Jesus it would snow in Lisieux. Before the ceremony began in Church, she looked out the window. There were dark clouds but no snow. But she was sure that Jesus would grant her wish. When the ceremony was over she looked out again …and so it was, the garden of the convent was covered in newly fallen snow.
God accommodates Himself to the wishes of his beloved.
Because He cherishes them.
Faced with a world which constantly preaches that man cannot exist without money, power, and sex, it is important that people exist who show in their very flesh that the only person a human being cannot live without, is God!