The disciplines of faith

I recently came across a quotation from Louis Pasteur: "Chance favors the prepared mind." He was able to make his world-changing discoveries about the role of microbes in illness not just because he was in the the right place at the right time, but because he had spent years studying and observing and crafting experiments. His mind was ready to see what the world had to show him.

God's grace appears in our lives unexpectedly, arriving at its own place and time. We can't predict or control it, but we can prepare for it, making ourselves ready to discover God's presence in our lives. Every time we say a prayer, or read Scripture or other spiritual writings, or show up for worship, or talk with someone about our faith, we open up more space in our minds for God to come in.

The lost

Our daughter lost her first tooth, so we got to play tooth fairy last night. There is something so reassuring to children about the idea that someone cares for every part of them, even their lost teeth.

Holding that tiny tooth in my hand, I started thinking about all the little parts of ourselves that get lost along the road through life. The dreams that don't come true, the roads we don't take, the enthusiasms we set aside, the idols that fall off their pedestals, the friendships and first loves that slip away. As we grow and change, it can feel like we have left so much behind.

But in God, nothing is truly lost. Through God's grace, everything we experience teaches us and shapes us and makes us into the people we are called to be. It all becomes part of us. Even the painful parts are surrounded and transformed by God's love, so that they too are part of the beautiful, healed, whole self that God is creating inside us.

Thank you, God, for watching over us, and gathering up every passing moment of our lives into your eternal heart.

I found this image of an angel on a roadtrip through New Mexico. It's by Lydia Garcia, a folk artist from Taos. It's always spoken to me of God's care for the smallest ones.