by Rev. Tyger Penson
One of my favorite novelists, Louise Penny, wrote in her book A Trick of the Light of a painting of an old woman who lived in the village of Three Pines. At first it appeared the subject was full of censure and despair. Being displayed at an art show, an art critic gazed at the painting and whispered, “It’s Mary, isn’t it?” He had seen what others had not seen. The author writes, “Clara’s portrait wasn’t simply of an old woman. She’d in fact painted the Virgin Mary. Elderly. Abandoned by a world weary and wary of miracles. A world too busy to notice a stone rolled back. It had moved on to other wonders.”
As I read those words, I think of our weary and troubled world struggling to just make it through until things will be better. We focus upon all the negative effects of hurricanes, fire, and floods. We worry about who will win the election, Democrats or Republicans, since politics have become a tug-a-war for winning rather than a balancing element between different perspectives. There is COVID-19 mixed in with traditional forms of flu, colds, cancers, and other illnesses and disorders. Our focus is upon a broken, bewildering world. We are too busy to notice a stone rolled back.
We don’t look for miracles. We don’t wonder at the activity of God at work in our weary world. We forget that God is suffering along with us and loving us through it all. We fail to embrace the image of God who is empowering men and women to become instruments of hope and wonder by finding a vaccine, by filling sandbags to ward off the incoming storm, by risking their lives to fight a fire, and by serving faithfully beside the beds of those in pain and despair.
The author, Louise Penny, continues: “This was Mary in the final years. Forgotten. Alone. Glaring out at a room filled with bright people sipping good wine. And walking right by her.”
I suspect that God also feels abandoned and sad that the message of God’s love lies forgotten as we fill our thoughts and activities with other things—walking right by God even as God cares and loves us and empowers goodness in all of us. Sometimes it takes a novel to wake me up to the miracles of an open grave that signals God present and active.
An open grave reminds of what came afterward. That rolled-back stone began a movement of God active in the world. It created the church—not fancy buildings—but strong, determined people who believe that God’s Kingdom on earth is possible. And because of that possibility, God’s people make a difference in the world in which they live. They bring hope and joy and healing when all else seems to be failing. They gather at a church building or virtually and pray for our nation, the marginal, the foreigner. They sing through their actions and their heart, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love…”
Thank you God for a rolled-back stone that brings hope to the future for all people. Thank you, God, for allowing me to be your instrument of service in a bewildering, hurting world. Amen