Hope and Love~My Walking Prayer

         

These past weeks we have lit the candle of hope and the candle of love for Advent.  I think of these words and I wonder, actually I know, that they may have lost their value for some. 

November and December have proved to be a time of great loss and sorrow for so many in our community.  I think of all the hope that has been promised, all the love and heart emojis that have been sent, and I wonder if those waiting for a new day can hear what is behind these words.

            I have taken myself to task as I say these words--what does it really mean when I say "I hope everything is ok--works out"? What does it mean when I hope for new jobs, healing, housing, food and peace?  What is behind the words I say?  I like to think that my "hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul"--as described by Emily Dickinson.

            How do I love? Is my love easy or hard to acquire? Do I throw the word around so that  my love for applesauce, my children, lilacs and my neighbor seem to be the same?  Does my love come with conditions or is it made perfect the more I give it away?  Can I really love my neighbor as myself?

            This is what I have discovered; while I do occasionally use these two amazing, life giving and life forgiving words too lightly, they are for the most part my walking, driving, gardening, knitting, sewing, cooking, simply sitting and even dish washing prayers.  These are the words that I bring to God in all the times I pray.  So as I am hoping for you in the digging, stitching, and gazing; I am bringing that hope to God.  When I love you, usually with only an image in my mind, I am bringing you fully to God in my prayer; the anxious love in the scrubbing, the overwhelming love in the sunset on the highway, the tearful love over a boiling tea kettle and the joyful love in the aroma of freshly baked bread. 

Genesis 8:8-12(condensed) Then, Noah, sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from

 the surface of the ground.  But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark...He waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark.  When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! --He sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return.

Like Noah I will send my prayers of hope out over the flooded areas and the dry, like Noah I will try to love what comes back to me and what is set free.