Week of August 13, 2000
Westly S.

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."
     II Corinthians 3:2-3

Living Documents
One of St. Paul's most inspirational images comes from the second letter he wrote to the Christian community living in the Greek city of Corinth. In explaining God's grace to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes that he, his fellow ministers, and the Christians living in Corinth are all living documents of God's love. God has written his love on the heart of every baptized person. Everyone whom God has written on becomes a special, unique living document of love that can be read and shared by others.

Perhaps because I like to read and write, I love this image of the living document. A document can be written, it can be read, it can be shared, but most of all, it is a way to communicate what we consider most important in life. Every one of us at Abiding Presence has been written on by God. But more than this, we have written our own documents and written on the documents that are the lives of other people. We write on the hearts of others every time we share the gospel, every time we help a friend, every time we live out the commandment to love each other as ourselves.

One of the great virtues of Abiding Presence, for me, is the way the people of Abiding Presence have been living documents of God's love for one another in times of difficulty. Our congregation has had its share of trials, physical illness, and even death. It is a great inspiration to me when I see how our congregation always responds to these situations with great willingness to share one another's burdens. When we do this, when we share each other's burdens, we inscribe God's love on our fellow brothers and sisters.

Loving and gracious God, we thank you for the way you have written your love on our hearts. Thank you for the way our brothers and sisters at Abiding Presence have been living documents of your grace. Continue to write on us and enable us as we write your love on others and as we try to be the kind of documents you would have us to be. Amen.

Contributed by Westly S.
Published Sunday August 13, 2000
Week 38 of Liturgical Year B