Lenten Meditation for Today: Shanti • Paz • Goom-jigi • Shalom • Pace • Salaam
In honor of the International Day of Peace celebrated on September 21st, Karen Katz wrote a children’s picture book entitled “Can You Say Peace?” In it, she shows children in different homelands and the word for peace in the corresponding language. She concludes her book with the desires that all children worldwide share: to play, to learn, and to feel safe. Perhaps we need to look to the children to show us ways to be instruments of peace. My nine-year-old grandson loves animals, and he collects blankets and towels to take up to the local animal shelter. He also takes time to give the animals some TLC while he’s there. His older brother often gives a hand up to a fallen basketball player regardless of team affiliation and has been known to rush over to check on an adult who’s had a fall to make sure they’re ok. Animals and people - all essential parts of God’s creation and instruments of God’s peace. Consider, for example, the work of support animals and the work of human hands which embrace, soothe, and heal. Or a voice raised in joyful singing or laughter, or sharing stories and Bible verses that lift and calm the spirit. Being an instrument of God’s peace does not require an advanced degree or an ambassadorship to the United Nations. It begins in our minds and hearts, manifests in loving acts both large and small, and has no age limit! In her poem The Hill We Climb, the poet laureate Amanda Gorman reminds us: “Scripture tells us to envision That everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, And no one shall make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promised glade, The hill we climb if only we dare it.” To which I can only add a heartfelt,
“Amen!”
~Submittted by Dione
Readings for Today: