Treasuring the Bounty
by Nancy Bowers, RScP
“Take from His storehouse, that its treasures may increase. His lilies do not leave their home when they are carried back into the world. Their roots remain. They do not leave their source, but carry its beneficence with them, and turn the world into a garden like the one they came from, and to which they go again with added fragrance. Now are they twice blessed. The messages they brought from Christ have been delivered, and returned to them. And they return them gladly unto Him.” ~A Course in Miracles, W-pl.159.9
How easy it has been lately to feel grateful. The cooler days and nights have been peppered with summer showers bringing much-appreciated moisture to this high desert where I live. The New Mexico landscape boasts lush greenery amid the parched brown landscape. My garden needs less hand-watering as it drinks up nature’s bounty. There is an abundance of plants offering up their luscious fruits.
God is good. Spirit is generous. I know that this Divine Essence is everywhere present and constantly blessing me with untold plenitude. I allow gratitude to fill my heart for the countless treasures that fill my day. Not just from nature, but from everywhere! I savor the loving touch from my husband, the eager phone call from my mom, the enthusiasm I cherish in my friend’s tales of adventure. I bless it all, knowing that even those things which seem less than perfect are amazingly right – the medicine cabinet that is too small, the potato plants that have been ravaged by some predator, the email I can’t seem to persuade to go through rather than bounce back – all these and more I just witness. I don’t know what anything is for in the end, but I trust that whatever is happening is FOR me and I judge none of it. I bask in the appreciation of Goodness and trust that God has my back even when I, momentarily, cannot grasp the reason.
How grateful I am to fall into faith. How good it feels to revel in the certainty that Life is for me and that God would never leave His children comfortless. I say “yes” to it all. I cherish all that occurs, even those things that some part of me would prefer to reject. I respect the strength I gain in being open to all the gifts God gives, even those I don’t yet feel ready to receive.
So, bring it on life. I am ready and willing to embrace all of it. I bid farewell to resistance and allow God to lead me. I love it all and I am perpetually grateful for Spirit’s bounty.
And so it is. Amen