As someone who constantly tries to skip to the end of a reading, sure I’ve read each passage hundreds of times, God’s call in the scripture always finds a way to slow me down. Today it is the very last line of a passage that is a reminder that the very breath within my lungs is a gift.
How can I remember that the very life I am living is not my own in a concrete way? The best way for me to illustrate this is when I look at my children. They are gifts to be sure, but I must remember they are not truly mine. They, and we all, are God’s first and will return to God. Each of us, every day, is on a path of returning to God. It leads me to heed today’s scripture and ask who and how I can celebrate this gift of others?
—Emily Schumacher-Novak lives in Milwaukee, WI, and works in Jesuit Higher Education and Ignatian Spirituality.