Something Good

Do you ever have moments in life when you feel like you’ve just gotten a big hug from God?

When your worries, whether justifiable or the product of your own unfounded ruminations, seem to disappear. When the hurts and resentments that have taken up permanent residence in your thoughts take a nap. When the beauty around you comes into such clear view that you feel like crying.

That happened to me this week. On a getaway up north with three beautiful women I get to call friends, I had moments when the food, the sharing, the surroundings, and the ease and beauty of it all overwhelmed me.

When those moments overtook me, not only did I get a lump in my throat, but the words from my favorite musical echoed in my head:

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good.

Maria and Captain Von Trapp exchanged these words in that moon-lit gazebo in The Sound of Music. For some reason (maybe because I am obsessed with that movie) I think of that when I feel those God hugs.

Isn’t it funny that my first thought, when I feel goodness, beauty, and love, is to make it be a reward for something? It can’t just be. Reward, rather than divine love, because nothing comes from nothing right? Wrong. God’s love comes from nothing we do. It was there before we could do anything and never ends.

I think God gets frustrated with us when we can’t just accept His tender mercies and glimpses of divine beauty as testimony to His unwavering, unconditional love for us. We don’t have to earn them or deserve them. They just are. If we could accept that and relax in it, imagine how much peace and joy would flood our days.

I think that is what He has in mind.

Joan

Something does come from nothing
I’m loved before I could
Somehow from my youth to adulthood (and beyond)
God continues to do something (very) good.

Here is something really good! Registration for Firstfruits’ new season is officially open!
Check out our line-up of awesome offerings both In-Person and on Zoom at Firstfruits.info.
I pray that you can join us and please spread the word!