God's Workmanship

"Laura who has no blog" passed along this video to me today. I believe I have seen it before, and perhaps you have as well. But when I watched it today it struck me as being a rather profound metaphor for my life right now. Consider Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Our freedom and God's plans really do bear no tension of contradiction because we are His creation and He is love. What strikes me is that God truly does create us, design us if you will, to be His co-laborers, and this we are when we are faithful to what He calls us to, that is to be whom God has created us to be. And God does not only call individuals to live little individual lives for His glory, he masterfully orchestrates His whole Church. So watching this movie reminds me of the Holy Spirit at work.

I had a taste of something that touches this in choir yesterday. We were practicing a certain piece before Mass started, one that I have mastered as long as I am carefully counting the beat and the value of each note. Well, I was not paying close attention and I got lost, and quickly the entire alto section derailed. We ended up using all the time we had left to do it over. It showed me the value of doing my part.

Tonight, I sang at the chrism Mass with most of my parish choir and several others who comprised a "city choir" for the occasion. When we finished, one woman from another parish stopped me and thanked me emphatically, saying "you're very easy to follow!"

It's late and I'm buggy-eyed with my need for sleep. But what I see is that as I follow where Christ leads, I discover that He has purposes in His leading me that are for others in ways that I can't begin to know. So as I love carefully, I discover that my life belongs to everyone else.

This has been one heck of a Lent for me.