Happy New Year!

May God continue to bless us in this whole new year!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

I have no other gift for you Lord but a thankful heart.

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I thank you Lord, with all my heart; I sing praise to you before the gods.
I face your holy Temple, bow down and praise your name because of your constant love and faithfulness,
Because you have shown that your name and your commands are supreme
You answered me when I called to you; with your strength you strengthened me.

All the kings in the world will praise you, Lord, because they have heard your promises.
They will sing about what you have done and about your great glory.
Even though you are so high above, you care for the lowly, and the proud cannot hide from you

When I am surrounded by troubles, you keep me safe.
You oppose my angry enemies and save me by your power.
You will do everything you have promised; Lord you love is eternal.
Complete the work that you have begun.

Psalm 138




I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king,
I will thank you forever and ever
Everyday I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever
The Lord is great and is to be highly praised;
His greatness is beyond understanding


Psalm 145:1-3


I love to pray these psalms everyday. This year is my first time ever to complete the nine mornings or Misa de Gallo. I have no other intention but to thank God for everything that He has given me. Because of Him, I couldn't seem to ask for more because He daily gives me the grace of contentment.

Merry Christmas!

God Bless Us All!

Blue Eye Shadow

I have long been wanting to have a new eye shadow with a blue color. I remember an office mate gave me an imported pink and blue eye shadow set and it took me five years to consume it. You can just imagine how often I use make up. But with my new work assignment, I am obliged to wear make up daily. For a time, I have learned to like blue and combine it with pink and I find it good to my eyes. Not having been able to learn the craft of using make up, I thought this is the best make up combination for my eyes and this is what I’ve been wearing a long time. Then for just a short while I used up the remaining eye shadow that I have for years. Eventually I bought one and consumed it in a short period of time also. I really wanted to have the kind of eye shadow that I previously had for years, especially the blue color. I have searched for it in the stores that are available in my place but there was just no color blue. I asked God if He can just give me Himself instead. I had a chance to be in the big city but I forgot all about buying it. So, for the meantime I used the available color that I have and just continued wearing the color which to me is not nice because it doesn’t jibe with my uniform. If only I have the color blue I could make a lot better combination that would suit my daily outfit. But that was what I thought.

One day, my boss excitedly gathered us all and presented some imported goods given by our client for her staff. Without really asking me, my boss gave me an eye shadow. Boy, it was just what I badly needed! I was excited and thought it was God’s answer to my prayer. The eye shadow set has four colors and to my dismay there is no color blue. Only black, silver, white and light pink. I tried to console myself instead. Well, at least it is imported. Unlike the locally branded, this will surely stay in my face even until midnight.

The next morning when I was about to paint my face, I felt excited using my new eye shadow. I forgot about the blue color that I have been thinking. I just combined all those colors in my eyes pink first then white then black and then silver. And I was surprised how it really looked good in my eyes. And most of all it really suits my uniform. As I would use it daily, I discovered that I can also make blue out of those colors.

Things like this happens not a few times in my life. It would always amaze me how his answers would manifest in my daily activities and in ways I couldn’t imagine. I know not just to me, but to us all.

In life, we sometimes ask for things we want, and it doesn’t come. We pray a lot for it and we receive answers we don’t like. We take a “yes” for an answered prayer if it happens the way we want it and “no” when it comes in a way we don’t like, and especially when it doesn’t seem to happen and you have prayed for it for a very long time. God gave us material things, family, friends, talents, jobs, etc. and we sometimes wanted to ask more or sometimes we don’t want to lose or let go of it. We sometimes don’t want to get out of our comfort zones. We thought that what we have are already the best for us because we feel good and happy about it. Hence, we don’t want change, we pray for things that we have gotten used to.

If we think good and better things for ourselves, God doesn’t think like that for us. God thinks not just for the better but for the BEST things for us. He may not be answering our prayers the way we want it, maybe because of wrong motives or it’s because our prayers may not be good enough for us. God knows us very well and He knows our trivial and vital needs. His answers may sometimes be is to wait. Maybe because we still have to grow and learn a lot more lessons. Maybe wait because it is not yet the time. Maybe wait because the best is yet to come. Also, sometimes the answers are already there but we cannot or refuse to see it. We really need to be patience and trust that He deeply cares for us.

There is never a single prayer that God never answers and He always answers them in His time….

PERFECTLY!

I'm in Good Hands

It was my first time to ride a car attached to a cable and I was very excited. Yes!..... But as the car progressed on the cable, I started to feel so afraid and started to tremble as I saw the grasses and the trees below me. For a moment I was expecting to fall. I was imagining I was falling from a parachute that I saw on movies. I wondered where will I fall? Maybe on the ground with dogs. Maybe I would fall on a branch beside a snake. I wondered how would I get out of that thick forest below. Would there be someone to help me? The laughter of excitement of my two companions brought me to my reverie. I realized I was in a cage. I remained seated not moving and was trying to digest in my mind what was happening. I began to laugh at myself. I was so silly feeling so scared. I remember how excited I was before riding it. So much excited even when I was just planning to get there.

Gee! So this is how it feels to ride a cable car! It was sooo goooodd!

As I was reminescing that event a few hours later I can’t help but notice the kind of fear I felt that moment. The fear wasn’t new to me. I remember feeling like it when I heard friends my age are building their own house, getting married, getting pregnant, having their own family, buying hectars of land in preparation for their old age, buying insurances, and many more. They all seem like having a bright future and doesn’t have anything to worry about it.

And me?... When I look at myself with the “world’s” perspective, I really felt scared about my future. I don’t want to be like those people who made the wrong choices in life and led a not so happy if not miserable lives.

Oh Yes! I may not have all that friends my age have, but for me, I have the best in the world that they don’t have. A special relationship with God. This is my best treasure!

It is in this kind of relationship that I was able to know myself and God better and I became a better person. He made me see wonderful things that made me not fear about my future. One of the big things He thought me to do is to focus on love, especially loving others. I learned that the best way to loving others is to love myself first. Years back, I thought loving myself was a form of selfishness. I was wrong. I realize that it is in loving myself first that I am able to really love others. By loving myself, everything else followed.

Indeed, you can not give that which you do not have. Now I felt like I have everything that friends my age have, and even more.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the God of my present and future and I need not fear. He knows my inner longings, dreams and aspirations. I know He wants everything good for me and desperately wants me to be happy. I believe that all that I wish for in my life will take place in His time and not in my time. I only need to trust Him because with him I know that....

I’m in good hands!

This, too, will pass

This is the message of PIBJ last Friday. To the readers who may not be following Preachers in Blue Jeans and might happen to read this blog, let me retell the short story Bo Sanchez shared.

A king instructed his Prime Minister to give him a special ring on his birthday. A kind of ring that whoever is sad, when he look at the ring ,he would be happy and whoever is happy, he would be sad. And so the Prime Ministers started to find this kind of ring. Days before the King’s birthday, he met an old wise jeweler and asked him about this kind of ring. He told him he needs that kind of ring on the Kings birthday. And so the old man took a ring and started carving on it. When it was finished he gave it to the Prime Minister and when he looked at the ring and read what was carved on it, he smiled.

The King’s birthday came and the King expected the Prime Minister to tell him there were no such ring. The King just order him to find such kind of ring in order to trick the Prime Minister. He knew there is no such kind of ring. But to his big surprise, the Prime Minister was able to find one and gave it to him. When the king held the ring and read what was carved on it, he became very sad.

The words that was carved on the ring was: THIS, TOO, WILL PASS.

Yes, anything that we have now will pass. The reasons for our happiness, the wealth that we have will pass, and so with the big problems that we have.

I can’t help thinking about the recent shocking news this past week. The bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers. A very stable company, (well, until last week) that is more than a century old. Nobody really expected this thing to happen. Honestly, I felt a little bit scared.( No, I have no investment in them or its affiliates. I am not yet blessed as to be able to invest with them. But, who knows??!!) Everybody knows our country’s economy will be affected with this US economic turmoil. But I know, this, too, will pass!

I believe this has become an eye opener to everyone that everything in this world are temporary.

Once again it has also proven that anything that is not founded by God, won’t really last.

The only thing that will remain is GOD.

Thus, the happiness and joy that we feel should be rooted in God because this will not surely pass.

Power Ranger

Ersyl Jay, my nephew, was two and a half years old when this incident happened. He so much love the Power Rangers. He would always make an improvised cape out of a blanket or a towel and ran around the house shouting “Power Ranger!” He knows when it is shown on tv and would patiently look forward to it every time.

It was one Sunday morning. After the mass, I told my sister we will drop by the Perpetual Euchristic Adoration (PEA) before going home. She told her son about it and added that he pray for his Ate to get well from flu. Ersyl just said, “Sige, mangayo ko damu-damu nga power!” (Ok, I will ask lots and lots of power!) True enough, to everyone’s surprise inside the PEA, he loudly said his prayers for the healing of his Ate and for the powers that he wants.

Smart kid indeed. Being one of the Power Rangers, who already has powers, he is aware that he still needs more, and he just knew exactly whom to ask!

I wonder if we always act like him also? Maybe sometimes. We think we are good enough to handle our problems. We think that we are mature enough to decide, that we have all the means to provide for our needs and others. But then we only discover that all we have is nothing but pride. We are so proud enough that we forget we are making a God of ourselves. We forgot that we are just human beings and has lots of limitation. That we can not control all the situations around us, like the people, weather, time and etc. Eventually we become impatient. We blame ourselves for making mistakes and wrong decisions. We tend to look down on ourselves. We think it is the end and we become hopeless. We become too engrossed with solving our own problems that we forget that there is someone else who could help us and make things better if not solve the problem for us.

We forget where to ask more power, or we even don’t think we need some more. We become self sufficient and refuse to think we need others help. We think we are good enough to handle our problems. We failed to see that some problems really have no solutions. Some problems are not for us to solve but we have made it on our own to solve them. We fail to see that problems or conflicts just exist for a purpose. However equipped and powerful we think we may be, we are still powerless in God’s eyes. Whatever successes we have, He had the greatest contribution in it. It is not all ours.

We are created with an innate longing for God. But oftentimes because of our own pride we refuse to acknowledge this cry in our hearts. We so much depend on ourselves that we forget about our Creator. We forget to see that the only thing that we need to do when all things fail is to…

LET GO AND LET GOD!

Keyboard

Exactly a month later. I finally got back my laptop yesterday. I was happy because I missed it. With its coming back, I am learning not just a few lessons. My major learning is that of letting go.

Literally, it has become really brand new again. Yes, without my personal files! The hard drive was diffective and they had to reformat it. I refused to think or recall what I have stored on it before because I am afraid I might lose my heart. (Joke!) In a way, I have prepared myself for this kind of worst thing that might happen before I surrendered it to the supplier for fixing. But I was also desperately praying that my files will be spared. I realized I only made myself ready to let go of my laptop and not my files.

I remember I had made it a habit that before I buy a certain thing, especially the expensive ones, I would ask myself, “Bea, are you willing to let go of it?” When my answer is no, then for me, I am not yet ready to purchase it. This I did when I bought my keyboard. Playing a piano or an organ was my childhood dream. I even swore that if it would only on my old age that I could afford to buy a piano or an organ, I will still try to have and learn how to play it. I didn’t really expect it to be affordable this early in my life. After making sure I could let go of it, I bought my much awaited keyboard. As much as possible I want to buy appliances that I can use for God’s ministry. I believe all these things on earth are just lent to us by God and I don’t want to leave my heart on earth when I die. I want to store wealth in heaven.

True enough, after two years, a friend of mine broke my keyboard out of anger. He stamped his feet on it. He even bathed it with soda. Just imagine how it looked like. I felt sad and found myself asking “am I willing to let it go?” In my heart I felt peace with the thought that I did not take it for granted and taken so much care of it. And most of all, have used it for God’s glory for its entire life. We were using it in our weekly prayer meetings. I also used it on a morning daily mass in the Cathedral with a friend playing a flute. I lent it to a youth who, like me, was also eager to learn but have no keyboard.

Miraculously, after twelve years it is still working. I still used it in some seminars that we have. Guess I really had a nice investment on it.

To whom much is given, much is required or expected. I realized I have to really use the gifts God has given me. Having this computer comes responsibility. God knows my hearts desires and I believe it is why He has answered my prayer when I asked for it. But I became lazy. (It started when I was snatched of my cellphone.) I became uninterested in writing. Though I have a lot of reflections in my mind. Didn’t I dream of writing a book? A compilation of my reflections? My spiritual journey with my lover? I remember Tita Rose. She said she has compiled 80 reflections she got from the internet, mostly forwarded messages from me, and had bookbinded it. One of them was my personal reflections which I have shared with her. It was so nice of her. She shares it to her community members and found it useful for some of their teachings.

While my laptop was away, there was a time that the reading for the day was about the fig tree. While on their way somewhere, Jesus was hungry and found a fig tree. He put it to death after knowing that it has no fruit on it. I believe Jesus knew that it wasn’t it’s time to bear fruit. I thought maybe God took my laptop away because it didn’t bear fruit in my care. My laptop is not like the fig tree that bears fruit in season.

My keyboard has a lot to show me now. I am learning from it. It has gone through a lot of tough jobs. All for God's ministry. And to this day, it has survived. Because it was used and not kept. It has done great things for people that has used it. It has served it’s purpose. It has bore so much fruit.

God’s answers are wiser than our prayers. Yes, indeed. Now I have to start anew without any heartache. I have to start writing new reflections but now with more passion. I’m afraid I might not be able to recall the many reflections I have already written. Thanks to some which I sent to my cyberfriends. I have copies in my emails that I can keep back. As I was using my laptop, I noticed that this has become better than before. It has more enhanced programs that I can use for my small business. Now I think God took my laptop away for a while so it could bear more fruit when he would hand it back to me. I’d like to think that God let this happen now since it is still under warranty so I need not worry about the expenses.

The only permanent thing in the world is ‘CHANGE’. Hence, letting go is what God always teach me. That no matter how many times I might be letting go, I should trust Him that things will always be alright because He wills it.

(I wrote this last June 2007. Now I decided to post it here... and many others in the future.)

With or Without Miracle

As I was lying in bed in that examination room, the TV monitor was slightly facing me and what I saw scared me. There was a very black marble like object that I saw on the screen and a few other smaller ones. My imagination went so very far that it scared me all the more. What if it was a lump? What if it was cancerous? What if? And many “what ifs”.

It was my first sonomammogram and I did know it included an ultrasound test. I had the test just to maximize the health insurance given by the company I am employed and grab the chance that I am assigned at the place where test like those are available. Yes, even if I am not yet at the advisable age to have that mammogram. I only knew that from the wondering laboratory assistant. But nowadays, i could not be sure especially that my father also died in cancer. And the test are free!

“So what if you have cancer, Bea?” I asked myself. “So what if I had cancer Lord?” I asked my Boss.

Of course I didn’t get answers right away. I wish I didn’t have that test. I wouldn’t have been bothered like this. I remember some people say that when a person knows he is dying, he will die sooner. But those that doesn’t, live longer. See? Cancer is Psychological. They say if you have breast cancer, you have deep resentment. I started to think if I have one, but I couldn’t remember any. I don’t keep grudges. I easily forgive.

But it wasn’t confirmed yet! I have to get the official result in three days and have my doctor see it. But there I was, fussing so much about it.

I was leisurely walking at the mall after office that day and found out that a prayer meeting was scheduled that night at the chapel. I was excited. It’s been a long time since I have attended a charismatic prayer meeting. There I met my awesome God again in person. My tears were falling and I couldn’t stop it since the warm up song started up to the last worship song in the entire prayer. God answered the question that I asked Him earlier. Yes indeed! Who cares if I had cancer! This is no longer my own life I am living. I’ve already lost my own a very long time ago and this is His. So He will do whatever He pleases with this life. Whatever His plans are, it’s no longer my business. One thing would make me sad though. It’s the thought of my mother being hurt again. She has already lost a husband and now her beautiful daughter. I remember my prayer before about death. I prayed that if I would die, I die after my mother because I can’t bear to see her lose heart again. I prayed that one prayer again, to postpone my death instead because of my mother not because I wanted to. Gee…!! Can’t wait to see myself singing with the choirs of angels in heaven! (My childhood spiritual dream.) Well, God knows best. I went out of that prayer meeting feeling light and happy and trusting God knows what’s He’s doing.

After three days of my test, I also had an ultra sound test of my whole abdomen. Because of Frank, (a typhoon that caused flash flood that reached 10ft) it was only after two weeks that I became available to get the official tests I had from the hospital and see my doctor.

I have read the result before I reach my doctor’s clinic. It showed I had two benign cyst! I learned later that it were so small and might naturally vanish over time. I Thank God! I excitedly went to my doctor to confirm I have no cancer.

Contrary to what I expected, my doctor quite panicked when she started reading my laboratory test results. I realize she was not looking at my sonomammogram result but to my abdomen test result. She immediately called her assistant to schedule me for another ultrasound test. The result showed a normal size retroverted uterus, and right ovary but with a 5.6 x 4.7 cystic lession in my left ovary. She can’t seem to wait to see how it was at that moment since I had the test two weeks ago already. She was worried but I was just there innocently seated in front of her without knowing what was happening to me. I could even smile but I hesitated. When I asked how big it was, she took a ruler and showed me. I wasn’t really disturbed by it. I had no idea how harmful it was that time.

To my mind, I was yet rejoicing. I had no breast cancer!

Oh yes! But not to the other part of my body. I was wondering how did I get it. Well, I thought , this happens to people whose reproductive systems are not in use. (laugh!) In fact, I would usually hear something like this from women of my age. This is why I was eager to have this test in the first place.

What really scared me was the thought of going under the knife again. Not really financially (Thank God!) because I have my medical insurance. I had been to it seven years ago and I don’t want to go over it again. I thought my mother was saved from worry, but not yet. I didn’t tell my family except my midwife cousin. She told me not to be scared and just finish my test.

The next day I had my follow up test and it was found out that I had no cyst! Yes! After two weeks, the cyst vanished. The doctor can’t seem to believe it. Even me. To convince herself, she had me have the test again the following month and no doubt I have no cyst!

As I always do, I rationalize again. Maybe the doctor who made the test was wrong. He saw different things. Maybe because I had my monthly period the day that test was made. Maybe my ovary expands when I have my period. But when I had my abdomen test, I wasn’t told I must not have my period during the test. Gosh..! I even questioned the credibility of the doctor that made the test on me. Well, just to prove to myself that no miracle really happened. Yes! There was no big miracle.

I don’t know when will I ever stop behaving like this sometimes. Just can’t really help it. To think that everyday of my life is already a miracle. I wake everyday breathing. Hey! I was very ugly when I was a baby. Mother didn’t even say I was beautiful. But look at me now! (LoL!)

Whatever have happened, miracle or not, for me it’s a very big blessing. I may not have felt anything bad about myself physically, but I know I need healing and He continually show it to me and heals me every time.

In all things that He allows to happen, He has His own purpose. It could be to me, to my family or to other people around me. It could be now or for the future. He is my God. He holds my life.

For me it was God’s way of testing my faith and how much and to what extent will I am going be loyal and trusting Him.

Indeed it was just one of those days……… when I have to learn more and be blessed at the same time.

With or without miracle!

Vault Combination

“Four times right at sixty, three times left at seventy and two times right again at twenty.”

I was starting to loose my patient as I was turning back and forth, for the fourth time, the knob of the heavy metallic door in front of me. I was already conscious with some persons behind me asking how I was doing. I just can’t hit the mark. After a little prayer and a lot more patient turning, finally I was able to hit it and we were able open it. My superior assigned me as her new vault co-custodian a few days ago. We open three doors like this everyday and somehow she has become a lot more patient since she seemed to have gotten used with my troubles in my combinations. I thought I was turning and hitting it right. One time I was even had to ask help from the previous co-custodian because banking hours is already starting and we could not yet open the vault. Sometimes I was tempted to ask my superior to replace me instead. But I know I should not. I was the only one left that hasn’t had the position for a long time. I just have to learn the techniques on how to turn the knob well to open it.

 

I behave like this with God. Sometimes I get lost and find myself away from His presence because I always forget the combination I had made to be able to open the vault of His blessings everyday. I would find myself already cramming because I couldn’t seem to get into Him no matter how I try. Just to find in the end that I am not using the right combination. I become focused on my self and worldly cares and forget about His existence. I am not doing the basic things that I need to do in order to restore my relationship with Him. Like missing my prayer time, scripture reading, daily and weekly Mass, adoring Him at the PEA, being lazy and refusing to serve Him and others around me, enjoying and contributing green jokes, making unkind remarks and deeds and etc. Most of all, not going to confession every time I commit sin. I know these things must be done in combination with the other actions in order for me to hit the mark and open the vault where I could find the blessings I need from Him everyday. The strength that I need when storms comes.

Same thing is true with the relationship I have with my friends. Sometimes I feel like we are not friends anymore or not close enough like we used to. I realize that I have stopped reaching out to them. I have become so stingy in texting them back when they send their greetings. I was also lazy communicating sometimes. I even refused to ask for their help. Sometimes I forget things about them. I forget the trivial promises I made to them. 

This also goes with our body. We need the right combination of fruits and vegetables and right kind of exercise to make our body fit. Eating the right food everyday only is not enough but with exercise as well. We also need to have a great amount of patient. 

Valuable things are kept inside a vault. It could be money, jewelries, pertinent papers and anything that is of value to the owner. Combinations are needed to open it which is to the knowledge of only a few persons. God’s vault is different. The combination is open to all. It is published and advertised, in the internet, in the radio, newspapers, in the market and everywhere. Treasures are even revealed to lure people in getting the right combination. But unfortunately most people doesn’t seem to care. They are not interested. Some thinks their treasures are more valuable than what is inside God’s vault. There are also some that are coward and thinks they could not memorize the combination. They think they could not make the proper turns and hit the mark. Some doesn’t even try. They are afraid to take the risk. Some just doesn’t have the opportunity and to the unfortunate, they just don’t know about the good news.

But it is a whole lot different with God. Unlike the real vault that we really have to find the mark and hit it, God moves himself and show us where the mark is. He wants us to hit it every time. He wants to give us all the things He has in His vault. But still we fail because we make the wrong combination no matter how many times it was revealed to us. We have lots of reasons why we fail like being lazy and careless, not paying attention, not making it our priority, deciding to wait when they grow old or when they will have their own family and many others. We sometimes feel like He is away, but the truth is, we were the one who went away from Him. God doesn’t run away from us, rather He pushes Himself to us. He loves us so much that He desperately wants to enter into the door of our hearts. However, there is no door knob, it is inside us. We are the only one who could turn that knob so He could come in.

So, if today we hear His voice, let us hurriedly come and open the door of our hearts. As we open our hearts, we also open the vault of His tremendous blessings that He desperately want to give us all and enjoy.

Now that you know, please…. open the vault!

Thick Mud

Typhoon Frank caused a very great damage to our country lately. Kalibo was one place that was greatly hit. People have seen and experienced the most incredible devastation in their life caused by flash flood. Many people lost their homes and loved ones and are still suffering until now. I was lucky enough to have my place in the fourth floor of a building and so I witnessed the water level soaring up in so short a time. While taking pictures I didn’t help feeling a little bit guilty being safe and comfortable in my place while others were in deep water struggling for their lives. I thought about the kids, the babies and the olds. I thought about my family in Capiz. Eventually I learned they were alright. The province wasn’t badly hit.

After the flash flood , came thick mud all over the place. I reported for work the following Monday to see the damage in our office. The water reached up to three feet inside. All our computers were under water. The mud inside were almost ankle deep . Everything were in chaos. It was already a week when the water was restored and the thick mud that was all over the office were already cleared. In our pantry, I noticed not a few things were still unwashed and so I decided to clean it up myself.

I was cleaning then, washing the kitchen utensils particularly those with mud. Some plastic utensils and food containers I throw away to save me from cleaning. But there was this one particular container that I didn’t want to touch. Dried mud was all over it. I was having a second thought of throwing it away. I decided to finish the rest and later decide what to do with it. I have been cleaning a lot from the kitchen already and I felt tired. Added to that, the water flowing from the faucet were very slow. Inside of me tells me to start cleaning the container already but I kept on hesitating because the mud was thicker than most of the things I cleaned. Nonetheless, I started cleaning it.

I was pulling away the thick mud when something inside me ask, “What if you were that food container, Bea, how would you feel?” Suddenly a realization came into me. I saw myself in that container. In reality, my sins are indeed thicker than the mud that has clothed it. As I poured water into it, the mud softened and I could easily remove the mud. I know my sin could not be softened by a drop of water, it has to be a drop of the blood of Jesus. God would not have second thought in cleaning this container. He wouldn’t even throw any that is in sight even though how tired He would be. He love me so much He would make a way for me to become useful no matter how thickly clothed I would be of mud or sin.

Suddenly I felt my self energized as I started scrubbing the container with all my might. Since mud had dried up, it can not be easily removed. The container seems so really and very like me! A lot of filth has dried up in my body because of sin. As I was scrubbing it I found myself repeating , “I want to belong, I want to be useful in the Gods Kingdom”. Slowly the brand of the container became visible. To my surprise it was not a cheaper kind but a Tupperware. One small piece of a Tupperware costs a lot these days. If only I knew what kind of a food container was it, I would have cleaned it first and didn’t hesitate to clean it no matter how hard the mud was in it.

God isn’t like me, and you. To Him everyone is special. All His creations are branded with the finest quality only He could make. No matter how thickly clothed we may be of sin, He will make a way to make us shine and become as white a snow. He doesn’t lose patient is scrubbing us even though how hard the mud has clothed us because of our stubbornness and pride. He keeps on scrubbing our mud by calling us, prodding us, teaching us. He uses our friends, our family, cell phones, computers, books, internet and many others as His scrub to get our attention. Every incidents in our daily life, He uses it to purify us, to keep us stronger and to make us gain the virtues we need like patience, humility, love and many others.

Most of all we have the sacrament of reconciliation to cleanse our soul and be united with Him again. Every single mud or sin inside us gone, thus, we are able to receive His grace and blessings.

Do you feel Gods scrubbing you today?

Behave and be cleaned…… from thick mud!