As I prepare to preach January 19th, on the one hand I have seen the Lord's hand as my husband underwent surgery last week, suffered a temporary but severe loss of cognitive coherence (from anesthesia) bathed in prayer; and he is now pain free and being restored in his mind. On the other hand fires are devastating the West Coast. Along with that, the dawning day of a change in national administration lies just ahead. How to call us out of the bonds of this life in the world into God's mission among us and the empowerment that is ours by the Holy Spirit . . . . God is bigger than an infinite universe. Creations are always smaller than the creator and like God made humanity in the divine image, all creation(s) contain a stamp of the creator. I read somewhere recently (from a pastor I know) we don't think of it but the water we drink has been water for others and other uses; the air we breathe has been breathed by others; the ground we walk on may well contain particles of the dust that Jesus walked on. Life is a profound sharing.

Somehow, I have shared my husbands surgery and loss of cognitive coherence, and pain and the miracle of restorations and health giving; and I have shared the devastation of those who have died and those who have lost everything and the responders who have risked life and limb in California; and I have shared the political processes and administrations that have passed at least during my adult life. My life is part of yours and yours is part of mine, period.

How needful then are right living, "just living" toward and among others; and humility before this immense, greater than everything God; because God has the power and the resources to provide for that way of life and Jesus promises to be with us for that way of life.