Wednesday, October 13, 2010

As the Chilean miners step back into the light...

I can't offer anything better than the prayer of Jonah, which showed up in today's lessons:

"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?' The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"

This event touches something deep in the human heart. Yes, the need for "happy endings." But I think this goes deeper to the ultimate end our soul desires, to come forth from the tomb and rejoice in new life.

Christ has written himself on the cosmos, and so flashes in our minds and beats in our hearts.

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