Nonetheless, a good book is a window that lets you see the world the author sees. The better the book the bigger the world that is glimpsed. And sitting with a good book also illumines the reader's life in new ways.
The first passage is from a book of blessings/poems by John O'Donohue called "To bless the space between us". This is part of a blessing called "For your birthday."
On this echoing-day of your birth
May you open the gift of solitude
In order to receive your soul;
Enter the generosity of silence
To hear your hidden heart;
Know the serenity of stillness
To be enfolded anew
By the miracle of your being.
The second passage is from Marilynne Robinson's book "Gilead." An old preacher is writing to his son, born in his old age, who is still a child. The old preacher hasn't long to live.
This week I intend to preach on Genesis 231:14-21, which the story of Hagar and Ishmael...
"…I found a great assurance in it. The story says that it is not only the father of a child who cares for its life, who protects its mother, and it says that even if the mother can't find a way to provide for it, or herself, provision will be made. At that level it is a story full of comfort. That is how life goes--we send our children into the wilderness. Some of them on the day they are born, it seems, for all the help we can give them. Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord's. I need to bear this in mind.
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