Something to Be Treasured

Beloved in Christ, 

At my son's school, every first grader is assigned a "senior buddy," a student in their final year of high school who serves as a companion and friend, sharing a variety of projects and social activities throughout the year. It's a really lovely thing for both students.

Last week, I took Asa to watch his senior buddy's diving meet. When we arrived, she gave him a small gift (a bag of candy) as a thank you for coming to support her. Later that evening, he temporarily misplaced the bag, and we spent a stressful few minutes trying to track it down, which we eventually did. 

The Christian life is fundamentally a matter of stewardship: learning to see everything we are, everything we have, and every breath as a precious gift from God to be cared for, treasured, and looked after with as much care and joy as Asa looked after the gift from his senior buddy. 

Are you taking time each day to savor the precious gift that your life is? Are you pausing to affirm the holiness of the various relationships we are given? Are you intentionally working to tread as tenderly as you can on the gift of our planet? Are you intentional about using every moment in a way that invests in God's project of healing the world with love? 

That evening with Asa was a lovely and welcome wake up call from the Spirit for me, to endeavor to see all of my life as something to be treasured with that kind of delight and care. The invitation to see our whole lives as a gift to be cared for and nurtured in the service of God's coming kingdom of peace is an invitation to fuller, more joyful, liberating life. What an extraordinary thing we've been given together, and an extraordinary privilege to be caught up together in the healing power of love. 

Grace and peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya
X Bishop
Episcopal Church in Minnesota