1. Open Your Mail
Reading: Matthew 5:1-11
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
We hear so many stories of trouble in the world that we begin to think God has gone off and forgotten us. We read about crime, drugs, war, famine, and cruelty. "If God is a loving God, why are all these things happening?" Whatever happened to God's love?
It's time to open your mail. There is a folk song entitled Love Is a Verb. Its message is that love is not a matter of feeling. It's a matter of actions. Though God is not visible to us, we receive love letters from God every day.
Jesus tells us we can see God, but we need to be pure in heart. What does that mean? Quite literally it means we must not have mixed motives. To be pure in heart requires continual self-examination.
Purity of heart is achieved by concentrating on seeing God at work. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by side issues. Astronomers concentrate on certain stars. Entomologists see only insects. Bird watchers isolate one bird at a time.
If all we see in the world is the filth, the crime, and the sorrow, we will never see the daily messages from God. If all we can see is ugliness, we will miss the beauty around us. Everything in the mail isn't junk. Open your love letters!
For Reflection: What love letter from God have I not opened?
A Prayer Seed:
The Lord who left the heavens
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men
Their pattern and their King;
He to the lowly soul
Doth still Himself impart;
And for His dwelling and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
John Keble, 1819
