Invitation

I don’t know what made me pick up my book of icons this morning. I have been deep in thought, sent to new places in my heart by the news that a friend has recovered from coronavirus. She is one of the angels in my life and of course her reflection on the experience is full of grace and tenderness and light. And then I picked up my book, and out fell a beautifully hand-copied page - a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh - given to me by another angel. And of course the book itself has pictures of icons of many saints and angels, and so I am feeling quite surrounded by this “great cloud of witnesses,” as I sit in my chair looking out at the trees.

This particular icon draws me now. I am invited to sit at table with the Holy Trinity, to enter into conversation with the divine. My heart is full of questions. What are you thinking about our global pandemic? What do you wish we would do? What do you hope we will learn?

And the divine reflects these questions back to me. What are you thinking? What feels right to you to do? What are you learning? That’s what the angels in my life do, too. They know there are no easy answers to the hardest questions. Only seeking to do the next right thing. And so they urge me to reflect, to pray, to dream, so that I might seek that next right thing, and be at peace.

God invites us all to the holy dinner table, where we might have long, thoughtful conversations. Where we can laugh and cry together as we consider the joys and challenges of this life. May we make time, lots of time, for these holy conversations. Giving thanks today for all my angels.