The Abundance of God

The Abundance of God
November 12, 2009www.fieldingfaith.blogspot.com

Since the genesis of the world, time, nature and existence, have been teaching us that we live in an abundant world. God is our infinite source of supply. The Eden story profiles a garden with everything that is needed. God’s first gift to us is paradise. For the writers to portray such a place, they must have had a glimpse of this truth.

One quiet afternoon I sat in my office looking out. A light shower was passing through as was so common in the Hawaiian islands. The sun was shining, its rays of light dancing on the trees and brush, the trade winds adding to nature’s movement. Palolo Valley was filled with the abundance of God in beauty, harmony, and peace. My heart was filled with gratitude for God’s goodness and grace. This was a moment of being in touch and attuned with God.

When we focus ourselves on the true quality of God, it is as much what I call today, abundance. God is abundant with love, generosity, care, giving, sharing, sustaining, guiding, helping, supporting. The God of the grain fields is the same God that cared for the taro patches, the rice fields, the potato fields, the melon fields, the wheat fields, and the corn fields. The God of the Pilgrims is the same God that produced the seeds of life in Mesopotamia, Canaan, Egypt, Greece, China, India, Polynesia, England, and the Americas.

When I sat at a table four thousand miles away from home, with new friends I had made, my first Thanksgiving away from home, having had my first brush with snow, my heart was filled with gratitude. This loving Iowan family could not have known how much a simple act of kindness, moments of genuine laughter, and generous sharing would mean to me even today. In abundance we all share a kind of “Pilgrim gratitude.”

Today we stand at the edge of a new frontier. This frontier is not one of unexplored land masses. Nor is it a question of devising new seeds for agricultural production. And it is not the challenge of finding the right economic theory. It is not solving the mystery of the expansive outer space beckoning the scientific and curious. The new frontier has been, is, and still is the human heart. In our hearts we are to discover the abundance of God. In our hearts we are to find the will to share. In our hearts we are to uncover the treasure of gratitude.

May gratitude pervade our land and our world.