Keeping the Faith

Mollie writes:

I was meaning to write an entry last night about recycling with children, but, after a day of weeding, I came inside the house to eat my dinner, and, whaddya know, I got locked into the rescue of the Chilean miners.  It was a real high to realize that 33 miners, who had been trapped over two months, would now all be coming up within hours.

While this has nothing to do with parenting, it has everything to do with parenting when you consider the "faith issue." It is amazing that 33 people were able to keep their wits together, take care of each other and themselves, communicate with their families above about their lives, stay healthy AND stay alive.

Frankly, it's a miracle.

I honestly see a spiritual side to this that has nothing to do with organized religion, simply the humble acknowledgment that we are not alone on this earth.  Over and over, the miners have stated that it was their faith that kept them strong.  Not one, so far, has been proselytizing, merely answering the obvious question,  "How did you survive?"

Once, when my 10 month old was having intractable seizures, I was close to panic.  We were in the ambulance, rushing him to the closest ER.  He'd been having seizures for at least 10 minutes and I was dangling on a thin thread.  Saying that I was praying is an understatement.  I was begging for my son to have relief.

At one point, in the depth of my despair, a warm feeling rushed into my soul.  I felt a gentling of my feelings and swear that the thought "It will be ok" washed over me.

I've never been a particularly religious person.  I don't usually go to church, don't bring my personal spiritual feelings into the polls, don't threaten others with eternal damnation if they don't agree with me, and I certainly don't have an insider's role in the workings of God.  But I do believe in God, and I know that God was with the miners just as God was with me in my hour of need.

It would be nice to understand that God isn't a meanie. Bad things don't happen because God is punishing us, only that bad things happen in a natural life.  Suffering is a natural part of life, just as elation is a natural part of life.  And a natural life is a gift from God.

So, I'll probably be watching TV off and on today (it depends on how guilty I start to feel about all those weeds).  It will be wonderful to see the miners be reborn, one by one, into this natural world.  It's nice to think that this life is a gift from a God who loves each of us, not just a special few.

Keep the faith!