St Luke’s View

There once was a woman who set out to discover the meaning of life. First she read everything she could get her hands on–history, philosophy, psychology and religion. Then she set off around the globe in search. But, wherever she went, people told her they did not know the answer. Finally, deep in the Himalayas, she climbed up to a tiny hut and with knuckles so cold they hardly worked, she knocked.

“Yes?” said the kind-looking old man who opened it. “I have come halfway around the world to ask you one question,” she said, gasping for breath. “What is the meaning of life?”

“Please come in and have some tea,” the old man said.

“No,” she said.  I didn’t come all this way for tea. I came for an answer. Won’t you tell me, please, what is the meaning of life?”

“We shall have tea,” the old man said, so she gave up and came inside. While he was brewing the tea she caught her breath and began telling him about all the books she had read, all the people she had met, all the places she had been. The old man listened and as she talked incessantly and placed a fragile tea cup in her hand. Then he began to pour the tea.

She was so busy talking that she did not notice when the tea cup was full, so the old man just kept pouring until the tea ran over the sides of the cup and spilled to the floor in a steaming waterfall.

“What are you doing?!” she yelled when the tea burned her hand. “It’s full, can’t you see? Stop! There’s no more room!”

“Just so,” the old man said to her. “You come here wanting something from me, but what am I to do? There is no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we will talk.”

Well, if today we can see but cannot understand. If we are desperate to be transformed to faith, vision and life beyond life. Then this lent we must learn the lesson of that overflowing cup. For we must empty ourselves. We must cease the endless internal chatter. We must open our minds’ doors and hearts’ windows. And we need then let the Holy Spirit fill us to the brim. We need let it blow through our character, our flesh and bones and the very being of our souls. And in that moment alone we will be still, we will have our being in God and we will be transformed impossibly. For then, uncomprehendingly, the anger of the past is gone. The miracle of life in all its fullness is restored. And the future is once more a new and inviting page.  Because, that is Christ’s rebirth from night into the brilliance of a brand new day.