OPENING UP HEAVEN

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Monday, August 15, 2022

“See if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.” – God speaking, in Malachi 3:10 (from The Message, Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible)

I don’t usually stand and stare during the day, giving appreciative thanks, but perhaps I should every so often. After all, ‘heaven’, which, to me, is just the infinitely supportive and benevolent universe, is constantly bringing me inexpressible blessings second by second. It’s as if I’m living beneath some cosmic airship full of gifts for me, gifts that are given with lavishness as I carry on my daily duties and adventures. I get the gifts of good thoughts, innovative feelings, surprising wonderings and musings, the greatest of reveries and notions and bright shining beliefs, even stray, skittish thoughts that skip through my mind and are quickly away again. My days may sometimes seem like silent ships on a sea of dullness, but there are blessings always born anew in the midst of them. Even the changing sky, and birds bringing their sparkle to the feeder, and the seed sometimes falling to the grass – even these are presents for me from every present moment. Plus, I always have sunlight of some sort smiling in its bright or gray way, giving me again a reminder that I’m living a life of the most implausible splendor and fullness, with heaven forever opening up in praise and impressiveness all around me.