Whose Shoes?

   Consider how the sun (Son) illuminates what we are to see if we are present to see what He presents. Consider the sun that constantly holds everything in its pull. It sends its power millions of miles until it hits a beautiful flower, waterfall, or tree with its rusty brown leaves and a pair of shoes swaying in the branches.  A strange sight I thought! No one else has mentioned shoes hanging in a tree, or said, “Have you seen…?" So I continued to wonder why I was the only one to notice this illumed sight at this time and in this place.   The answer was revealed to me a few days later as I again stood looking up at the shoes with another person, a person whom I saw through my own set of filters.

   Just as we can look at God’s creation and never see its beauty until it is revealed in sudden light. We can look upon others again and again and never see the beauty in each other until one or both are suddenly revealed. The gentleness of spirits came together that evening as we stood together pondering the shoes in the tree. And now I have my answer as to why I was to see a pair of shoes in this particular tree, at this particular place and time. It was for my growth and understanding that gives room for once again the practice of letting the light reveal what is to be really seen.  It is the gentleness of heart that allows us to see and be seen. It is with this humbleness that two people actually saw each other as they both pondered the dangling shoes as they stood together beneath that specific oak tree.

Thanks to everyone at the University of Creighton Retreat Center for a wonderful week of prayer, fellowship, and self-reflection. The week of April 6^th through the 13^th was truly a time of silencing mind, body and heart.