Shelter in the shadow !

The mercury touched 39 degree celsius in our garden at mid day today. 

When I opened the door facing our courtyard and the garden around 4.30 pm today, the hot wind was still blowing. I spotted a Magpie Robin sheltering under the shadow of the foliage of  a custard apple bush. Till a crow flying past that way chased it away, I watched this bird perched and looking around. One hardly can find a Magpie Robin without its bird songs in the morning or evening. It was still and restful!

Seeing it finding its shelter in the heat of the day, I found a symbol of hope in its behaviour. 

A shelter is a place for rest and recovery! 

There is an outer space of shelter. 

There is also an inner space of shelter. 

What is this inner peace of shelter!

I was reminded of the words of Jesus of Nazareth, in the Gospel of Mathew Chapter 6, verse 6: 'But when you pray, go into your inner room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you'! 

The inner space of shelter is within us!

Fortunately it is not a lonely place, but a place where God shares the space with us. The proposal for prayer is a call for interior silence to experience communion for renewal !

For most of the day I was feeling disturbed on account of an inadvertent recollection yesterday at dinner time, of some events of the last two years at my work place.  They were events that made me feel exhausted and stressed. During and after the recollection, I drifted from making my interior space the place for them to loose their chains upon me and give me peace. 

The interior pace is the place of our formation and communion. The outer space where we ventilate does not settle the turmoil, but adds agony to the soul. The inner space absorbs the hurts and transforms them to be a dew upon our consciousness for forgiving and renewal!

That is why the words of Jesus of Nazareth is critical for living centred in our inner space where God is calling us to find our rest, 'Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' (Mathew 11:28).

The journey to our selfhood starts when we can travel towards ourself, where God abides to restore us to be ourselves!

The Magpie found its shelter!

Now it is my turn to find my shelter in my interior space!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)