To Be Is Being

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

This is the week we celebrate the birthday of the Christian Church. Christians around the world will be gathering this Sunday to commemorate the day of Pentecost; the day when the "helper" Jesus promised us comes in the form of a tongue of fire - according to the Acts of the Apostles, anyway. It's a day when Christians can unite around one idea; we are a people who are led by and through the love of God as shown to us by Jesus and explained to us by the Holy Spirit.

Today's Psalm seriously extols the power of God. With its images of God opening God's hand and all the animals of the world receiving anything they might need for survival and this same God taking life by turning away from creation the Psalm explains just how much all the earth is dependent on God. We continue to read about the earth trembling at the mere gaze from God and God's simple touch making the mountains smoke when suddenly the Psalmist exclaims, "I will sing praise to my God while I have being."

I have to admit that as soon as I read that proclamation I stopped and asked myself, "Do I praise God with all my being?" Does everything I am, all that is me, each and every action, word, and thought praise God?

I then to put myself in the place of this Psalmist and began to look at the world through his eyes. I began to watch the rain gently fall outside my windows and understood that without the rain plants would not live. I watched the wind blow through the trees outside my front door and understood that without the wind the mountains would not be formed. I smiled as my wife softly stroked our pet cat and knew that in the quiet they shared there was peace.

Yes, God is in everything and of everything. It's because of God all things are.

This will be my thought for the week as the day of Pentecost approaches; that I can be in that place of understanding which brings to me the feeling that through God's never-ending presence I can find a way to share God's unconditional acceptance of all creation.