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Most of the world’s religions recognize that some of the deepest & most unknowable questions are examined through Biblical stories. One of the darkest & most difficult stories that contains some answers to the question of why painful, challenging situations occur & how to navigate them & move forward, is found in the story of Abraham & his son Isaac in the book of Genesis.

As perfect & spiritually feeding as the summer season appears, the fact of the matter is, woven within these glorious days, it cannot be denied that there are days when we may experience illness or unsettling situations that unbalance us & effect our body, mind, & spirit in one way or another. Suffering, grief & loss do not take time out for the months of the summer.

Try as we may, I do not think we are able to consistently handle balancing the beauty & suffering life brings us without God’s help. So, the question is, where does God who created us & all of life, fit into our lives in times of both beauty & periods of suffering?

The fact is, as we move through our days, God our Creator & great composer, is ever present with us in all living things & situations but sometimes we are so distracted by the scattered pieces of our lives that we just don’t recognize the varied ways that God may be speaking to us.

I believe that in times of suffering God may send someone to remind us of our ever-present God by reflecting His light in order to allow His light to transform us & strengthen us to help us heal.

Through His Grace, God longs for & empowers us to recognize, receive & then reflect His image outward to others, bringing into our lives the beauty of His image in which we were created.

Beauty is God’s will for His creation. God calls us to be ambassadors of His Grace as we encounter one another. That is our calling. Reflecting God’s Grace brings beauty, healing & peace to the universe.

As new life breaks forth in the Spring, God is revealed to us, sometimes in familiar ways & sometimes in fresh new ways.

As with the transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly, humans also go through stages of being transformed by God

Life is complicated don’t you think? Sometimes we are able to see & experience the pure beauty of being alive & we feel holy joyful, grateful, hopeful, energized & purposeful. And then other times we experience & see unavoidable tragedy & we suffer & lose our sense of meaning, belonging & purpose in life. As our life experiences seem to shift between beauty & suffering, upon occasion, it can be a challenge to understand exactly what the ultimate meaning of this life we have been given is. That is especially true when we are experiencing suffering, be it caused by: serious illness, grief, loss, injustice, loneliness, betrayal, etc.