Comfort and Courage

I have been thinking about book VI of

The Brothers Karamazov

and how Elder Zossima speaks of praying for everyone.

It is encouraging to remember that we can be of help

to the lonely, the ill, the abandoned,

by prayer.

Some days I wish I could give everyone who is alone

or distressed

a cup of tea and comfort.

But at least, since I cannot help everyone in this precise manner,

I can pray, as meager as my prayers are.

This is a comforting realization.

I am aware also,

through reading about Elder Zossima,

about how what we do, and what is in our hearts, effects others.

God cares for us, each one

He knows the number of hairs on our head,

He knows our names.

Our small lives can be an encouragement to others.

By struggling for our salvation

by doing the little we can

each day

we can help others to struggle as well.

Madeleine L' Engle speaks, in her book,

A Circle of Quiet,

of the courage of a Magnolia Tree to bloom each year.

We must have courage.

I sat by the canal yesterday,

nearby to this tree.

Many people went by,

running and biking mostly,

and I sat and watched the water.

I thought, as I saw the current in the water stirring to the surface,

of God as the being that which is under a whirling surface,

hidden underneath

perfectly still.

God is with us, here, now.

Oh that we can have courage and comfort to know

that God is with us.