Dear Friends,
You are not important, and yet Jesus says, “Rejoice because your name is written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
The virtue of hope, with great irony, is the fruit of a learned capacity to suffer wisely, calmly, and generously. The ego demands successes to survive; the soul needs only meaning to thrive. Somehow hope provides its own kind of meaning, in a most mysterious way.
The Gospel gives our suffering both personal and cosmic meaning by connecting our pain to the pain of others and, finally, by connecting us to the very pain of God. Did you ever think of God as suffering? Most people don’t–but Jesus came to change all of that.
A life of inner-union, a contemplative life, is practicing for heaven now. God allows us to bring “on earth what is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) every time we can allow, receive, and forgive the conflicts of the moment. Such acceptance allows us to sit in some degree of contentment–despite all the warring evidence.
God alone, it seems to me, can hold together all the seeming opposites and contradictions of life. In and with God, we can do the same. But we are not the Doer.
Our importance is given and bestowed in this universe as part of the unbreakable covenant between us and our Creator. We are declared important “from the beginning” (Ephesians 1:4, 9), and when we really know it, we have no need to prove it. We are reminded who we really are in God when Jesus tells us that our “name is written in heaven.” Surely God holds medical workers and first responders close to God’s heart right now, as they put their lives on the line to support us all. The courage they are showing is the kind of courage that comes from knowing the value of life. I pray we might all operate from that place as we struggle through the coming days. (The above is credited to Richard Rohr.)
Children celebrating at the Community Center in Guatemala
Children celebrating at the Community Center in Guatemala
Santa in Costa Rica with kids
Community center in Managua, Nicaragua
The roof is being worked on at the new Community Center in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. God has been blessing the construction of this building.
Thank you for loving our children and being a part of our AVC family! Please remember AVC with prayers and year end giving.
Merry Christmas & Blessings on a New Year!
Cameron