Midday Meditation: Stories Mary sat at the Beloved’s feet and listened to what he was saying. —Luke 10.39 We drove through cities and towns, little burgs and urban stacks of buildings, suburban developments like giant microchips, past apartment windows and farmhouses, cozy neighborhoods and lonely hovels. Each house a story. So many stories. None are evident by appearances: the neat estate may hide a story of abuse and loneliness; the sagging single-wide a story of redemption. The people we saw—the people you pass by— every single one is a story with a beginning and a middle, and you only know one sentence of it. The nuanced setting, the alarming backstory, the various characters and their own story lines, the intertwining of so many subplots, these you do not know. And the end? And how it all fits together, and what the story is really “about?” Ah, wait. But meanwhile what a privilege it is to be welcomed into one home, one story, even to just look around. What a gift to know someone who is willing to hear your whole story. And what a gift we have to sometimes stop and listen. - Steve Garnaas-Holmes What story-gifts are being offered to you today? Is there someone you are being invited to listen deeply to (whether that is the story of another, or even your own)? Is there a way you are being invited to tell some piece of your particular story, trusting that it is a gift to the listener? If you ever have the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cities full of homes full of people full of stories, what might it look like to treasure just one for a moment? Might you catch a glimpse of God in the midst of it all? How might you, like Mary, listen in on the story/ies God is telling?

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2023-04-17 18:00:25 UTC