Jesus is really at work in our lives.
I believe this in faith. I believe in His particular love for me and for every person. Sometimes I remember it in real life, when I am surprised by the recognition of the fact that He is present in this moment; that whatever the circumstances may be, he is using them as elements of a Person to person dialogue with me. God became man in order to seek out each one of us; He has personalized the whole, vast, apparently random and chance-filled universe. He takes all the multitudes of forces that come together and make up the situation of reality at any given moment, and fashions them--from all eternity--into a love song that He wants to sing to each of us personally.
There are no "coincidences" in real life. In the ultimate truth of things, which has to do with their place in God's plan, no event is insignificant; no situation we find ourselves in can be called "meaningless," because God in Christ has chosen to dwell in this world, and to shape everything into the possibility to discover Him through love, through joy, through suffering freely embraced, through sharing His mercy.
And it is not just in a distant, far-off way that we seek God in the midst of an apparently meaningless life. God has come to us, to dwell in every circumstance so as to call us to recognize His presence, to draw us to Himself--even through the terrible stuff--and to evoke from us the response of confidence and love.
Sometimes, I recognize this.
Then there are times when it seems to hit me over the head, as if He is so tremendously intent upon getting my attention and inspiring in me a sense of wonder that He could love me so much. He works small, quiet, undocumented miracles right inside of my daily life and in the lives of others. He surprises me, again and again.
Sometimes we are dry in our relationship with God because He is preparing our souls to encounter Him more profoundly. But sometimes we are dry because we are simply not paying attention to Him.
Even then, however, He is always paying attention to us.
Tonight I am just full of gratitude and wonder. He dwells among us. He shapes everything into a path for our steps. At the heart of the experience of life there is this marvelous dialogue that uses everything for its language. As St. Thomas Aquinas said, "the universe is a word between God and the soul."
