I awoke this morning & the house was quiet. It was six a.m. & I decided to sit and have some time to do a little reading. I opened my book &  began to read. The chapter I began was all about compassion for all living things, I continued reading only to be stirred within my heart of a conversation I had just had the night before with my daughter. We had been to a family dinner with her cousins who were sharing their details of killing the local nuisances in their yard. The parents had been frustrated by the voles and golfers, so the kids were talking about how they were shooting them during a dinner discussion.

Later that night, my sweet daughter, innocently brought up the discussion & shared how she couldn’t believe they were shooting the animals. My heart sank at such a conversation.

This morning as I read I came across a very sweet story that accompanied this very topic…here is the story.

“Every creature is full of God and is a book about God.” -Meister Eckhart

Albert Schwitzer tells of the moment his reverence for life’s creatures came within full consciousness. As a boy, Schweitzer was with friends who proposed that they go up into the hills and kill birds. Reluctant, but afraid of being scorned, he accompanied the group. Arriving at a tree in which a flock of birds was singing, the boys prepared for the kill by putting stones in their catapults. But then Schweitzer heard the church bells begin to ring—mingling music with birdsong—and to him, the music was represented a voice from heaven. Shooing the birds away, he went home, his priorities clear: reverence for life was more important to him than any fear of being taunted or laughed at by his peers. Notes Schweitzer, as the bells rang, he remembers how deeply moved and grateful he was that, on that day, “they rang into my heart the commandments ‘Thou shalt not kill.”    [taken from The Heart of Goodness by Jo Ann Larsen]

I was pondering further this morning & thinking of the upcoming Father’s Day holiday. What greater time to honor the greatest Father of All. I pray that as you celebrate those fathers you love this week, that you will take a sweet moment and also think of all the great gifts and blessings that are bestowed upon you and your family by the most loving Father of all. I think a great way of honoring our Father in Heaven is to see the beautiful things all around you and give praise and appreciation. I think listening to the song of birds and marveling at their existence, their heavenly voices, the small miracles they are and finding a deeper sacred reverence for life itself would also be a great gift. I think teaching our innocent children about having a greater respect for this sacred reverence and then taking a quiet moment in the solitude of the day, filling our hearts with gratitude and joy to be able to experience this world as a whole–that would be a beautiful way to honor Him.

-Peace to you.  -H