"It's been a year" (learning to listen)

Psalm 36:5   Yahweh, your faithful love is in the heavens, your constancy reaches to the clouds. (NJB)

     “It’s been a year,” my friend said smiling with her whole body. A year. A year since her diagnosis of breast cancer. A year since surgery and radiation. A year since her life was turned upside down and inside out.

     All of a year…only a year.  A year’s time can be like the blinking of an eye, or it can feel like eternity. It’s a marking of time, but these words only begin to tell the story. For some this marking is time living with an illness. For others it marks the days into weeks, weeks into months after a great loss.

     We can find encouragement in Psalm 36. Here we are reminded of God’s faithfulness to us. Constancy. Enduring presence. Continual source of hope. From beginning to end and into beginning again, God is with us.

     In the words of my friend, I heard her proclaiming celebration and as I listened closer I could hear “alleluias” sung by angels. In these same words spoken by those who are learning to live without a loved one, I sense the changing of trees from falling of leaves, to the barrenness of winter, to the buds of springtime. 

     God’s faithful love is in the heavens and God’s love is right here beside us. God’s love is with us as we listen for one another’s words, as we listen for one another’s hearts.


                                                Breath prayer: “faithful”     “love”


Prayer: Holy God, we are in awe of your graceful presence. We look to the heavens and marvel at all that you have created and are creating still. Send your loving spirit and remind us that hope is all around us and holding us close. We give thanks for our days in years, we give thanks that always, always you are with us. Amen.