In Whose HandsJuly 15, 2024

In Whose Hands

At the end of last week, I felt as though the world had taken an unexpected and unnerving 90 degree turn. By the time you read this, we may have experienced another unanticipated turn. On July 4th, we sang God Bless America and I hoped that all those who raised their voices really had their hearts in it. The national holiday brought memories of struggles we have faced, valleys we have been through and individuals who have sacrificed their lives so that we can have a voice in determining our future. And I found myself wondering in whose hands our future lies.

As I prayed the office this morning, I read the account of Julian of Norwich in Showings: I saw that (God) is everything which is good, as I understand. And in this (God) showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed to me, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the love of God.

Everything has being through the love of God. Everything! And I looked outside from my third floor window and allowed that thought to sink in and to rest as the puffy grey and white clouds were resting against a clear blue sky. I listened to the birds building their nests in the eaves under our roof and realize that God loves them and keeps them alive and they love God in return through song and flight. Stretching below are multiple shades of green displayed in every texture of leaf formation and all of this surrounded by carpets of emerald. All that I see has being through the love of God.

Like the clouds, the diverse trees, the variety of birds, we are not on a solo flight into the future. Perhaps as we struggle with and through these troubling times in our country, we need to carry each other’s burdens, lift each other’s spirits, acknowledge the pain we know, and tell the often unwelcome truths we must face before it is too late. We must each support others to do their part, to not give up, and to not get discouraged by the challenges we continue to face. If all that we love about America is to last, it will only be because we as a people truly love what this country strives to become and still struggles to realize. Then our nation under God will have a chance of lasting, of enduring, because God loves it as well. Only then will we come to understand that who we are together exists through the love of God. Only then will we know our country as held in the hand of God.

Sister Anne Marie Diederich