Lauryn, my four-year- old niece, was busy making colorful circles on paper. With crayons, she made one after another. Her circles kept her busy and occupied. She was having a great time as she rocked on the porch glider.
Circles are just as intriguing for adults. They are sacred symbols of life. The sun is a circle. The moon is a circle. Even time seems to march in a circle. Summer, fall, winter, and spring travel around and around us. Circles show there are no real beginnings or endings, and that creation is withoutend. Like Lauryn, our life never tires making its own circles.
Don't we watch babies being baptized, mourn friends who die, celebrate marriages of our children, and welcome their children into the world? Yes, the circle of life is surely endless. It carries us right into eternity. We come from God and we eventually rest in God. God is the beginning and end of everything that lives.
However, as believers we know that God's love is what makes our circle sacred. God's love invites us into the world, protects us on our journey, heals our brokenness along the way and receives us on our last day. What God desires from us is that we live our circle of life pleasing God.
St. Francis de Sales writes:
"Have a pure, simple, peaceful longing to please God; this will lead you to act without fear and with peace and gentleness."
A Reading from Psalms 104:1
Bless the Lord, O my soul O Lord, my God you are great indeed How manifold are your works, O Lord In wisdom you have wrought them all The earth is full of your creatures