Reflect

Welcome to my little corner of the Five-Minute Friday community, where a group of dedicated bloggers link themselves with Kate Motaung and engage with a word prompt for five minutes... Just five. No editing, no revising - just a five-minute thought stream....

Today's prompt is... REFLECT.

GO --

We study light in fifth grade, reflection, refraction, and absorption. It's amazingly mathematical, the movement of light, bouncing off of surfaces at the same angle it bounced on (hmm...can you bounce ON to something?). Transmitting through objects and surfaces; emerging changed in predictable ways. Waves of light, measureable by height, amplitude, and length.  Resonating, vibrating. In synch and absorbed, never to be seen again, and out of synch - changed. There's science here. And numbers. Equations -- open and shut, done and done. Electromagnetic radiation -- those are the lightwaves -- the length determines the frequency which determines visibility. And here's the cool thing. Just because we can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there (yes, double negative intended).

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Genesis 1:3 (ESV)

Science and math can explain what it is and how it works. And the explanations are logical and satisfying. Opened and closed. Like visible light. Now you see it - it's easy to believe it.

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 

John 12:44-46 (ESV)

Not equation. No numbers. Not open and shut, not done and done.

Jesus as light.

Reflecting from us, in acts of kindness, in compassion, in loving one another as He loves us...

Transmitting through us - our attitudes changed by Him, choosing joy, choosing belief, choosing hope...

Absorbed inside of us - Holy Spirit cocooned in our hearts, never to leave, dependable and steadfast...

Out of the darkness. Jesus.

And today - I leave you with a quote for our world - 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; 

only light can do that. 

Hate cannot drive out hate; 

only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

E-Lationship

We argue, on occasion. True confession. It's a question of expectations and opinions and belief in the right or wrong of a situation. A question of statements, and disagreements, and finding common ground to go on. Never loud; no yelling, not even volume raised, but argument nonetheless.

And my daughter knows. She's sensitive to tone and innuendo, to body language, to abrupt silence. I don't know what goes through her mind. A storm cloud looming? A rocky path? It's ok that she witnesses our disagreements; she needs to know that people have disagreements. Even people she loves. Even her parents. She needs to witness respect in the difference. And resolution. It's ok that she recognizes things are not always hunky-dory. That life goes on. That love goes on.

And that's when I learn from her.

"It's e-lationship, Mom," she tells me. "You and K...., it's e-lationship." She puts her arms around me, the empathy master working on comfort, and all I can do is smile at the Sierra-ism. She skips first letters on her words sometimes, in this case, turning relationship into e-lationship.

But isn't that just like her. To show me the joy?

Elate - the verb means to make someone ecstatically happy. It originated from a combination of two Latin roots: ex -- meaning 'out or from,' and ferre -- meaning 'to bear.'  These became 'effere', which then became 'elat' which means raised - which then travelled over to late Middle English as the verb we now know.

I like that. Relationship and Elationship. We raise up, we bear. From two minds, from two people, out of two hearts -- we raise up.

Love is like that.Relationship is like that.

"At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:25-30 (ERV) 

Five-Minute Friday and the prompt is Season. It is the beginning of Advent and the sometimes crazy Christmas season is upon us. In looking for an anchor for this post -- a scriptural anchor -- I came upon this passage from Matthew. In every translation except English Revised, season translates as time. As in - in that time... Curious. 

I tend to do this thing - this choosing of the 'underdog', so to speak. This choosing of a scriptural anchor that only uses season in one translation. When the whole prompt is season.

Hmmm....

I'm sure it's because of the reference to children -- to the wisdom of children. Because I am a witness to this through my daughter. My 24-year old daughter who is not a child, yet, because of her unique capabilities and differences, perhaps because of her extra chromosome, shows me a different perspective.

In Matthew, Jesus was most likely at his wit's end (if you can imagine), revealing himself through supernatural means -- miracle upon miracle -- over and over, in cities and towns far and wide, yet realizing that the people he came to redeem still did not see or believe his true nature. How frustrating. So, instead of ranting and raving at those people, he turned the situation around and thanked his Father for the children - children without the burden of worldly knowledge - who believed through heart rather than head.

It reminds me of my daughter - who believes through heart rather than head. 

"It's e-lationship, Mom."

Of all the seasons of the year, it seems to me that this is the one where we need to stress the elationship in our relationships. 

Love is patient and kind; 

love does not envy or boast; 

it is not arrogant or rude. 

It does not insist on its own way; 

it is not irritable or resentful; 

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, 

but rejoices with the truth. 

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)