The Holy Place of Love.

By Guest Author, MaryKate Morse

We have a mini-woodland in our backyard, and one morning my husband, Randy, and I could hardly contain ourselves because of the creative antics of one little gray squirrel. He was doing everything in his imagination to impress another little squirrel, for sure a female. He was hopping around on the ground, flipping in the air, jumping into the low branches and hanging by one foot and swinging. He obviously had one thing on his mind – impress the little female who was watching him.

I think we often wish life could be more like that for us. If only we could be consumed with finding fun ways to impress each other and to love one another. But we are consumed by so many other things that don’t bring joy or promise hope for our tomorrows. We are divided with the Covid pandemic, social unrest, economic survival, and always the politics. It is hard to see a future for playfulness and for love.

What does God have to say to us for this time? I think God is speaking through those little squirrels. We must choose love because therein is God. This means, our prayerful struggle is to turn ourselves again and again to Christ, our lover. We cannot change one hair on our head. How can our worries change any outcome this world might bring upon us? We love first our God, and then we love well our fellow human beings. If we stay in that holy place, we will be just fine. It’s not easy, swinging by one foot upside down, but it is necessary.

So, I offer you a prayer written by Wendell Berry in 2005:

I know that I have life

only insofar as I have love.

I have no love

except it come from Thee.

Help me, please, to carry

this candle against the wind.

May we all carry this candle of love against the wind,

MaryKate Morse