God In Front Of Us
Thoughts on the Second Reading – Joe Frankenfield
Acts 10:34, 37-43

Years ago I met a young couple preparing to baptize their first child. The dad commented that they could hardly believe what God had done through them. “This child; this new, little person; it’s almost too much to believe – but here she is.” His eyes brimmed with joy.

We don’t bat an eyelash when people comment that God has been at work in their lives when they’ve conceived and born a child. But eye brows climb if those same people remark that God gave them and their children a clean place to live when they finish cleaning or a warm place to live when they finish insulating their home. Does conceiving and giving birth involve God more than cleaning and improving a family’s dwelling?

What if I picked tomatoes from my backyard garden and given a half dozen to my neighbor: has God provided them abundance and love? What if the local high school kids entertain three hundred parents and friends with a production of The King and I: have they brought God’s love and joy to their families and friends?

A witness offers others an experience beyond himself. Parents, homemakers and high school drama students witness to the goodness of God every day.

The world is awash in the love of God. Our demand for that love to be somehow extraordinary blinds us to the everyday wonder and sanctity of life. Restricting God’s activity to amazing events walls us off from the depth of God’s immersion in all we know. We do ourselves a great disservice when we restrict God’s work to events we can’t explain. God creates every heartbeat.

It’s difficult not to place the boundary of God’s involvement in life at the edge of our ability to grasp it. The price of doing so, however, is living a life of make-believe. We can look deeper; not for God’s sake; for ours.