The Lasting and Eternal Gifts of God
Pick up any musical instrument and play the note “A.” That particular sound has been “A” since the beginning of time, it will be ‘”A” today and tomorrow and next week, it will be “A” a thousand years from now. Whether it is heard in an aria from a Mozart opera, a Stephen Sondheim composition or a guitar riff from Eric Clapton, that singular sound is “A”.
The most important tool in a good carpenter’s toolbox or on a designer’s drafting table is the T-square. This simple measuring device enables cutting wood at perfect 90-degree angles and drawing straight and plumb horizontal lines. Whether building a sandbox or skyscraper, whether designing a cottage or office building, the T-square makes every line and angle true.
Take a handful seeds and plant them in the ground; water and care for them, and soon a plant will sprout. Every seed has the potential to produce a bountiful harvest for the family table or a garden of great beauty and delight. Whether we use those seeds to feed the starving or amass great wealth for ourselves, a seed, carefully planted and nourished, holds within its seed coat the potential to produce a great harvest.
Think about the person you love most and who loves you most. In their eyes you will always find welcome, in their embrace you will always feel safe, in their presence you will always know joy. Relationships are risky — we risk rejection, vulnerability, being taken advantage of. But when we open ourselves to the possibilities, when we put aside our own wants and expectations, love grows, heals and fulfils.
Today’s feast of the Trinity calls us to realize the lasting and eternal gifts of God: the beauty of inspiration, the wonders of nature, the constancy of science, the completeness of love. How we use and experience these things are the beginnings of finding God and discovering the purpose of this life God has given us. This Trinity Sunday we stop and ponder the many ways God makes his presence known to us: in the eternity of time, in the constancy of nature, in the wonders of science, in the life-giving and affirming experience of selfless love; we give thanks for the grace that is ours in God who is loving Father and Creator, God who is teacher and redeemer, God who is love that binds us to one another as family and community and church. May we give thanks for such extraordinary grace by the ordinary ways we reveal that grace in this time and place of ours.