Streams of Comfort

This month we’re tackling grace. A hard word for many in light of recent events. I am Venezuelan and while I cannot speak for anyone else’s experience, I can relate to the overwhelming feelings of despair and helplessness that many felt. Watching buildings fall and people being crushed, there are many that ask, “Where is God?” “Did he abandon Venezuela?” It certainly can seem that way on the surface. Yet, there are opportunities for us to do better, to love and help our neighbors, to grow in our faith. Faith that there is a reason for all this suffering. God never promised us that we wouldn’t suffer. But He did promise that He would be there through our suffering. That there would be unfathomable, unfailing grace.

And that’s what goes deeper than the surface. The miracles of people being dug up from the rubble. The sound of loved ones finding one another in the dust. The arms that hold people up in their grief. The sun that rises the next morning after endless long nights. That is God’s grace.

.

.

On this side of heaven we are albatrosses.
Crossing oceans just to go back home.
Tirelessly tired we move along.
Do what our nature asks of us.
Without blinking.

On this side of heaven there are storms.
Ones that form suddenly but do not end quickly.
The things we love wash away
Until only the important remains.
Souls carrying each other.

On this side of heaven the earth trembles.
Imperfect and uncomfortable, it too, slips on fault lines.
Created things fall and crumble.
They were supposed to last forever but nothing here does.
The finite never does.

Despite the storms and trembling, we fly on.
Holding each other with grace,
Until God calls us home.
Where only the infinite remains.

Alice R.