Love is in everything

A tree outside my window shades my home from the sun. Bark, leaves, roots and sap, home to birds and squirrels, bugs and food for the same, it's leaves fall and nourish the soil then bloom again to shade my home in the summer creating a cool haven for me.

I see the wood of a tree in the boards of my home. They do not look like the tree and they are not alive to my eyes but I see the body of the tree in them, the years that it lived and grew and was nourished by the sun and the rain and the soil.

I see the men who cut the tree and shaped the wood and built a barn. I see the care that they took to plane the boards and smooth the edges.

I see the barn, new and strong, sheltering animals and grain and tools from the rain and the sun that used to nourish the tree. I feel the years of the barn as it falls into disrepair and neglect. The men who built it passed on and then another man or woman - seeing the beauty and strength still in the boards - taking apart the barn, so lovingly built but now fallen, and cutting the boards to grace the walls of their home.

It is all of love and from the creator.

In a vase of clay with glazes of minerals I see the hands that cleaned and shaped the clay, ground and applied the glaze, fired the results and put it out into the world where I found it. I had it and loved it for years, not knowing that the love in that vase would speak to me of the Creator's love for me one day.

The curtains on my window are of fibers grown in the sun and the rain, collected, processed and woven by other hands, dyed with the colors of nature, sewed to earn a living for a family by hands I have never seen They are from my creator to me with love.

The glass on top of my table from the sand created by unknown years of rocks and the oceans was heated and shaped by humans I never knew. It speaks to me of his love for me and of the oceans shore.

The mirror with the silver back reflects my mother’s love as it was a gift to me from her and shows me the beauty of creation and the love in each thing around me.

The brass in the candlesticks that came out of the earth and was refined and shaped by humans to be bells on one end and light my way on the other. A joyful noise and a light unto my feet from him to me, thank you.

There is nothing in my life that was not first created and given to all of us by the love the Creator has for us. In our love of creating we continue to express his love for ourselves and each other.

One loves to work with wood, another with clay, another with weaving, but they do what they love and put their love into each piece. Even in a sweat shop the person sewing is doing the work for love of themselves or their families.

It was all put here for us to use. It all carries the love of the creator for us. The geodes, "ugly" rocks on the outside but filled with crystal beauty, remind me we are not as we appear to be. - we are so much more than what we appear to be here.

The beans in the coffee, grown and ripened in the sun and the rain he sends, picked by other hands, packaged, cleaned, ground and sent to me to enjoy from half a world away are a gift of his love.

The food we consume so carelessly was nourished and grown for our bodies benefit, sometimes oceans away, cared for and picked, packaged and transported by others we never see.

The animals we killed to eat are loving spirits now, the plants we eat are loving spirits now. The tree that holds the plate of clay and the glass of sand and the tools of metal are all from him and provided by his loving creation of all that we need.

I see all that is around me was created by Him for us before we ever thought to bind the first stick to the first rock and now we have people living in space. All done with what was here before we even knew it was useful to us. What use is mud or ground up rock? Yet I have a beautiful vase. So I tried to write a prayer for the meal I was sitting to eat alone that said all these things.

Creator,
This time together with You and those we love is such a blessing to us, thank you.
Please bless this meal with your presence now.
Thank you for this place you have given us to enjoy it in.

On all those that provided this food with their labor and love, we ask your blessings.
Please bless the hands that prepared it for us and those that will clean up.
May it bring health to our bodies so we have the strength to do as you wish today.

Please bless all those in need of food and shelter today with your bounty.
Thank you for loving us so much and providing for our needs.
For all that you have given us we are grateful to You.
Amen.