"You’re imaginative these days, so it’s hard for you to understand how someone could be without a dream for him for herself. Hold a powerful vision of the future for someone who’s lost faith."

I’ve mentioned before that I check my horoscope every day, in fact, it is possibly the last thing I read in the paper each morning. After my systematic reading…front page, local news, sports, business, finally the variety section, my horoscope really represents the words I am most likely to recall during the day as they were the last ones read. Today’s wisdom gave me pause….no pun intended.

I checked in with myself. Is it true I am feeling imaginative these days? Well, perhaps not as much as the horoscope would imply but I am in what I would call a stew pot of possibilities and that is energizing, which breeds creativity. But it is the second part of the daily words that struck home: Hold a powerful vision of the future for someone who’s lost faith. When I read those words the image that came to me was one of  a snow globe in which a scene is held in the shelter of the stagnant liquid until it is shaken to bring it to life with the gently falling snow. Though completely simple in its ingenuity, it is always a thing of magic.

I began to imagine all those people in my life who are experiencing uncertainty…friends who have lost jobs, others who are dealing with health issues that cause fear and anxiety, young ones who are struggling to find their own unique way in the world…..they all represent those who are living on the margins, those who may have ‘lost faith’ in themselves, those they trusted, even in whatever they experience as God. Perhaps especially this experience of the Holy One.  Each is held in the beauty of that globe waiting for the vision, the light that will help them move into a place of courage, calm, certainty.

Today I can hold out for each of them a vision of safety and wholeness and hope. I can imagine their beauty and the dream that will be reignited or that will flash forth for the first time and will send the snowflakes swirling and dancing, creating that simple magic. Today I can hold for them a vision that their tired or fearful or confused eyes are unable to see. To do this is what it means to be in community, in relationship, a part of the kindom. It is a gift to be the holder and the one who is held. Truth be told, we are always both. Blessed be.

"The kin(g)dom of God is not come with things that can be observed; nor will they say,’Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kin(g)dom of God is among you."  Luke 17:20-21