Hope is like the cardinal in the bramble…..you have to be seeking it, truly looking for it to see it. It is hiding in plain sight. It is small, it is vivid, it is breath-taking. It is mercurial….there for a moment and then it flies away.

Hope is an illumination from the Spirit that we are to take courage and trust that God is with us in the thicket of life, in the human tangle and confusion of our world. Hope and trust in God gives us a place to stand…without it we are lost and stumbling in the dark.Take heart! God is with us and provides the surprising presence of hope to encourage and sustain us.

Keep looking……This morning I rejoiced to see a pair of cardinals foraging for food on the ground under the feeder which the bluejays were zealously guarding. The cardinals accepted the seeds that were dropping from the feeder. They found a way to be fed without fighting and confrontation. Another lesson from the cardinals: They find a way to live  gently and thrive within their world.

Oh to live gently in the world, to be content and at peace.

A REFLECTION FROM HENRI J.M.NOUWEN

The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, call for its realization in our day-to-day lives.Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.

Shared by Reverend Joy Kulvicki