Time Filled With Quiet

Busy hands,

working over simple tasks,

leads to time filled with quiet meditation

and musing over God's ways.

It's a still day.
I've spent several hours creating notes of encouragement for the women who will attend Christian retreats this summer. These are three day weekends that will serve 40 or so women; those who are pilgrims and those who will serve as facilitators of the retreat. It is part of retreat tradition to shower the participants with scriptural reminders of God's love. Many volunteers muster their talents to create and donate dozens and dozens of these mementos of love. 

As I work through the process of selecting a verse from scripture, envisioning the design of the item, and assembling forty of each one; their is an internal conversation with the Lord about what the recipients might need. As the printing is designed I muse, "Where should the font be highlighted for HIS best meaning?" 

As the pieces are assembled I ponder how the selected scripture will nurture the many different circumstances that the recipients process in the course of their retreat. The burdens that will be laid down, the wounds that will begin healing, the call to service that will be clarified, and so on.  

I wonder if the memento will perhaps, be shared, passed on to someone else because women encourage each other that way. "Here, I thought of you. You need this hanging on your fridge to remind of God's care." or "This touched my heart and I knew it would have sacred meaning for you too." The hours melt away. 

By the time I turn the finished work over to those who will carry it into the hands of women seeking a deeper understanding of God, I sense deeply that God has already been invited to guide the message that each woman will receive.  




Take a bit of time to visit the communities over at Holy Experience and STILL SATURDAY.