Reflections
on Isaiah 11:6, Matthew 17:20-21 & Romans 8:28
“… and a little child shall lead them.”
On Tuesday
nights youth gather in the basement of my church, in an area we call THE
CAVE. They come to share a meal and to
hangout, maybe do homework or play pool or even study the bible. This week some
youth came with whole families in tow. There
are many families throughout New Jersey and New York who are still without
power as a result Hurricane Sandy.
Tuesday was day eight of no power, no lights, no heat, no technology,
for some no water. Temperatures inside
those homes were registering in the 40s.
It was getting old as well as cold. The church was warm though. Its power had been restored on Friday (day
4). So our Tuesday night gathering was a
chance to warm up, charge phones and iPods and share a meal … in the light!
While
many of us were eating manicotti and swapping lights-out stories,
seven-year-old Lila was gathering pixie dust.
She had found a handful of old Halloween confetti on the floor of a
small storage closet. She carefully
scooped it up without attracting any attention and began quietly handing it out
to those seated around the kitchen bar.
When she got to me, she tapped me on the arm and unfurled her hand,
inviting me to take a look. I saw Halloween
confetti, but Lila saw pixie dust, magic
pixie dust.
She
invited me to make a wish, but not at the bar.
I had to sit in a magic chair that she had positioned under a recessed
light. I was not familiar with pixie
dust etiquette, so Lila explained that I needed to sit in the magic chair,
while she sprinkled the dust on the top of my head. My job was to silently make a wish. So I did.
When my wish was made, I shook my head and let the pixie dust fly, then I
went back to the bar to finish my dinner.
Lila
invited a couple of others to make wishes and it was no mystery what those
silent wishes were. Everyone was wishing
for power. Not magic power or financial
power or even political power (it was election night), we were all wishing for
electrical power, for life to return to some sense of normal.
“For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a
mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it
will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Life in
the Cave went right back to normal.
Making wishes to satisfy the exuberance of a seven-year-old was fun and
cute, but came without expectation or any renewed sense of hope. We all returned quickly to conversations
about generators, gasoline and electric companies and Lila moved on easily too,
ditching the pixie dust for a princess puzzle.
But then the cell phones began to ring; first one call, then
another. Power had returned for Michele
at her home and then Kira got the call and Kyle. There was an instant change in mood in the
room and all eyes began to turn to Lila. Silent wishes were revealed, all having been
granted via a handful of confetti and the faith of a child. Call it coincidence or luck or serendipity,
whatever your want, but the circumstance and the timing were pretty wonderful. The only one who was unmoved, who was not
surprised, was Lila. With the
nonchalance of certainty, she simply responded to our amazement with the
matter-of-fact reasoning of faith; “I told you it was magic.”
Pixie
dust and mustards seeds aren’t magic and Halloween confetti can’t turn on the
lights, but faith can move mountains.
And faith, it appears isn’t surprised when the mountains move. Faith expects God to act. Faith trusts that our hopes and our wishes
matter of God. Faith knows that with God
all things are possible. Faith also
frees us to let go, once the wish is made, allowing us to move on to other
matters, other puzzles, knowing that our prayers are resting in God’s merciful
hands and while all might not be resolved quickly or even exactly as per our
request, the assurance that God works all things together for the good is
enough. Faith is the light that makes
living in the dark possible.
“We know that all things work together for the good
for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
*Please know
that this in no way seeks to make light (no pun intended) of those who lost so
much more than power as a result of Hurricane Sandy. There is no magic pixie dust that can bring
loved ones back or repair a home that has been swept way by the ocean. But faith tells us that life does not end with
death and the story, our stories are not yet fully written. God has more to do and we are never without
hope that better is on its way. My
prayer for all those who are still suffering is that God will bring good out of
loss and frustration … maybe by way of a miracle or a stranger or by the power of
community. May this storm bring out the
best in those whose hope is in the Lord.
Amen.
