You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.    (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

One benefit of children becoming teenagers is that they attain a critical mass that makes them truly helpful mowing lawns and raking leaves! They also begin taking subjects such as Confirmation and History, knowledge of which benefits their parents as much as the young people. My children recently read selections from Deuteronomy. Impressed by the good common sense contained in Moses' advice to his people as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, I decided to read the book all the way through.

At the same time we were looking at Moses, we have been studying the American Revolution. Reading about the suffering endured by Patriots and Loyalists, and the American struggle to form a new type of government that would embody the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence, reminded me of Moses. The dismay I have felt recently over our country's use of torture in Iraq also reminded me of Moses' expectation that his people's descendants would not remember the lessons learned in their 40 years of wandering and would repeatedly forget God and what their ancestors believed in.

I tell my children that I am like Moses, experienced (maybe a little wise) and yet too imperfect to attain anything but a glimpse of the Promised Land. I take comfort in Moses' example. He experienced successes followed by failures, followed by success in an unending cycle and yet he was always loved by God. Moses had the honesty to look realistically at himself and the people around him and the strength and wisdom to create an oasis of love in his heart resistant to despair.

As we sit talking at the evening meal in the glow of the Advent candles, I wish I could advise my children about what to expect in the next decades: what career choices they should make, where to settle, what to do about the environment and how to obtain peace in the world. With a sigh, I simply say, "Go and remember to love God."

Dear God,
Thank you for steadfast love. Help us to open our hearts to love and to think loving thoughts of you before we act. Amen

Contributed by Susan L.
Published Sunday December 18, 2005
Week 4 of Liturgical Year B