Even Jesus’ Good Deeds
Sometimes it happens when I’m cutting, I get momentarily distracted cutting the wrong size, or veer off from the ruler. It happened just this week causing me to pause, take a deep breath, give myself an “oh well this happens” and move on. Yes it’s irritating, yes I’d prefer not to waste fabric but, it happens. When purchasing fabric I generally take this kind of thing into account the bonus is I’ve worked in peace of mind. You might guess, and rightly so, that I’ve run into making mistakes leaving the project in a holding pattern until the right fabric makes an appearance.
Distraction happens. Stray thoughts demanding attention even when we know we need to be focusing in on the task at hand. In all reality we probably have a short attention span, lengthened only by practice and determination. I’ve heard, and experienced that little people have an attention span equal to their age in numbers. As with everything this will vary from person to person, and on what the subject is. If I’m interested in something I’ll listen for a long time. Case in point I just paused a podcast, turned on the tunes to write.
PS Check out the group Snarky Puppy their music is amazingly creative
At Mass I’m working on being more attentive, more present in this moment. It takes work, and it takes some patience. There is something amazing happening there in that moment that I have a desire to participate fully.
Stray thought: I don’t know about you but I can be rather rude in speaking to myself, trying to get my self to focus.
This morning (July 4th) the Priest celebrating Mass spoke on the Gospel from Matthew 8:28 – 34, where Jesus heals the two people possessed by demons.
The thing Father pointed out, that I’d not noticed before, is that the towns people thanked Jesus for making their town safe by making the road in/out of town safe to travel on, and then they asked him to leave town. “Hey, thanks for taking care of our problem, please leave.” “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” Sometimes paying attention gives insight, and helps us see that there is frequently more to the story. In paying attention to the homily I heard more than expected. In this case, the healing they recognized as a good, but were kinda pissed off that their livelihood was now gone. But. uh. Hello. Miracle. They were wanting, expecting, hoping, dreaming for something else. They wanted a both/and situation – the safety of travel and the pigs. An interesting note found on the USCCB page, it is most likely that the people raising the pigs were Gentiles.
Jesus, our Savior, begins to take a step to show us that we are one human family in this town. I always find it interesting that the miracles Jesus does happen with the willing consent of those for whom he is healing. These Gentiles recognized something incredible about Jesus and consented to the miracle they needed the demoniacs healed for the safety of their town. They simply were not expecting the thing with the pigs.
As oft happens I started wondering how many times God has answered my prayers in the way I’ve told him to and then asked Him to leave. “This is great thanks ever so much, dinners over see ya later buh-bye.” Like say, the Eucharist. Whoops. Pondering that one for a great big moment. I can say with absolute certainty I’ve done this. Received Eucharist, had a great moment of Communion with Jesus and our local parish community. Then get soooo annoyed and say something snarky about someones driving habits. Or I create a big something out of nothing. Like thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking about what I’d say to someone given the opportunity to correct some grave sin.
I’m thinking a lot about color, and quilting, and prayer and holiness. My head is dizzy with possibilities wondering how all of this is interconnected, am I missing something? Am I seeing, paying attention to, and thanking God for all of this? Am I adequately sharing these gifts? Am I looking at this situation with the thought of God’s love present in my mind and heart? Am I actively listening, saying thank you and asking the Lord to stay here in the town of my heart?
So many questions, ones that will require attention, openness, honesty and kindness.
God bless,
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 