Reflection for Today ▶️ ⏩ ⏹️
Front cover illustration for Letters to a Soul by Dom Hubert Van Zeller, 1976
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
— Isaiah 55:8-11
This passage reminds me of something I read many years ago. I quote from memory, inaccurately but hopefully in the right spirit,
"We are not so powerful that we can make prayer. Prayer comes from God, is kept going by God, and finds its way back to God by its own energy."1
The Word that comes from God if received, tended, watered, and nurtured becomes our spiritual sustenance, and we in turn send our word back to God. Prayer is the giving and receiving of attention. This gives the picture of a continuous flow of energy, like an impossibly large fairground ride moving gently through the ethereal and the tangible. We can choose to ride this prayer loop any time we like, just by climbing on board. Everyone is welcome. The nature of God is different to that of man, yet we can share our natures, each appreciating the other, each creating understanding and oneness, in a tidal ebb and flow, always in motion, always enriching.
1 'Prayer in Other Words' by Dom Hubert Van Zeller, 1963