4/23/2007

Somewhere in the details...

Trudging left a comment on my last post 'God is somewhere there...in the details.' I kept reading that statement over and over and realized that thought should be something I remember every single day. I'm not sure she knows just how profound that statement is but usually that's when statements have the most effect, when we just speak from the heart with little fore thought.

God has always been a part of my life. He's been there for the lowest points when I almost believed He'd forgotten me. He's been there for the highlights when I was grateful that He'd remembered me. There have been moments I questioned His intentions; moments I teetered on the edge of faith. Somehow I've managed to keep believing. It's been no picnic, no ride on the merry-go-round, rather it's been like climbing an enormous mountain with all the wrong gear. Once or twice I've reached the top of that mountain only to realize that climbing back down was a much harder task. I suppose where I'm going with all this is that I often forget to look close enough while I'm in those moments that test my faith - and see God in the details. It's usually only after the moment's passed that I give God credit for helping me survive.

It's hard to imagine that God was there, somewhere in the details, of that horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. It's hard to imagine that God was there, somewhere in the details, as that Blue Angel pilot plunged to his death as his parents looked on from the crowd of spectators. But I'm going to try, to figure it out, to see Him, to believe He was there. Maybe He was the last thought of a loved one that passed through the mind of a victim. Maybe he was the light that someone saw as they left this world. Maybe he was holding the hand of that pilot so he wouldn't be scared of what was coming. Maybe he was the distraction that made his mother look away as his plane fell from the sky. He was there, in the details. Details matter more than anything. Thank you Trudging for reminding me to pay attention to detail.

13 Comments:

  1. NML/Natalie said...
    You do write so beautifully. Hard as it is to believe amongst that atrocity, you are so right about him being there. I realised a while back that we have to believe in God being there for both the good and the bad. Many people turn to him in their hour of need but not neccessarily when things are hunky dory. So thank you for reminding me to pay attention to the details :-)
    Unknown said...
    What a beautiful post..and thank you. I am in the midst of constantly trying to remind myself to give thanks to Him everyday for everything. It is comforting to know he's with me every step of the way - thank you for the reminder to look in the details.
    Anonymous said...
    Dag Hammarskjold, the former UN Secretary-General, put it so beautifully: "God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity. But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance of wonder renewed daily, the source of which is beyond all reason." We don't have to quarrel about a word, because "God" is only a word, a concept. One never quarrels about reality; we only quarrel about opinions, about concepts, about judgments. Drop your concepts, drop your opinions, drop your prejudices, drop your judgments, and you will see that.

    "Quia de deo scire non possumus quid sit, sed quid non sit, non possumus considerare de deo, quomodo sit sed quomodo non sit." This is St. Thomas Aquinas' introduction to his whole Summa Theologica: "Since we cannot know what God is, but only what God is not, we cannot consider how God is but only how He is not." I have already mentioned Thomas' commentary on Boethius' De Sancta Trinitate, where he says that the loftiest degree of the knowledge of God is to know God as the unknown, tamquam ignotum. And in his Questio Disputata de Potentia Dei, Thomas says, "This is what is ultimate in the human knowledge of God -- to know that we do not know God." This gentleman was considered the prince of theologians. He was a mystic, and is a canonized saint today. We're standing on pretty good ground.

    -- Anthony De Mello S.J. - from Awareness
    lash505 said...
    Where are you....
    kimmyk said...
    Happy Mother's Day NWC!!
    JJ said...
    Happy Mother's Day.
    oxoxoox
    JJ
    Lori said...
    It's been awhile...I hope you are doing well.

    Happy Mother's Day! I hope it was a wonderful one for you all.
    Anonymous said...
    Nice refelction and writing. I agree He is in the details.
    Lori said...
    I miss you. Are you OK?

    If you need to talk: candlelibra@yahoo.com
    Trudging said...
    Are you going to post some more?
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    Kathrin Ivanovic said...
    Thanks for your words! They resonated with me...a lot!

    K.
    keda said...
    where are you sweetie?

    i'v been away too, but not this long.

    i hope all is well with you and yours.
    and that god really is there in the details for you.

    let us know how you are sweetness.
    people care too. :)

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