Now I'm here blinking in the starlight.

I totally woke up in a cloud of fret this morning. I said good morning to the weight, dove under the rising wave, and, honestly, sprang out of bed, dragging the pink and white comforter with me.

I sat down a little hunched, hopeful, sort of, as I opened up to this Morning’s Office, to be observed on the hour or half hour between six and nine a.m., Sunday November 27. And it was only a little after four.

Jesus taught us, saying: “I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life? Matthew 6:25-27

Manna for the day. 

Do not worry about your life.

Manna.

Just enough. My beloved Shepherd making me lie down in green pastures. And then, flip flip, over to the prayers for the twenty-seventh from John Baillie, naming the sin. Naming the faithlessness. 

O Lord my God, who lookest down in unspeakable love and tenderness upon the sorrows of earth, give me grace, I beseech Thee, to understand the meaning of such afflictions and disappointments as I myself am called upon to endure. Deliver me from all fretfulness. Let me be wise to draw from every dispensation of Thy providence the lesson Thou art minded to teach me. Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee. –John Baillie

And His Spirit wrapped His arms around me and comforted me with His peace. The peace that passes understanding. Beyond human imagination. 

My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. –Psalm 5:3

And these days Everette is Rapunzel, Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. And she is wandering through her life with a hugest long trail of soft grey cotton cloth bound to her head, hijab-style, the swaddling wrap for Simone. 

And it is totally a mixed-up metaphor for me this morning, the lightness and softness of His burdens, the strength and courage of E, the stout-hearted princess facing her enemies, most, well actually, all of them created in her own imagination, and with the grand energy and willingness with which she casts her magical stream of hair to assist those around her and the sweet song she sings of golden healing around any ache, once again, real or imagined. 

Beyond human imagination. And, actually, E has the biggest and best imagination ever. And this peace is even beyond that. 

Glory be to Thee, O Father, and to Thee, O Christ, and to Thee, O Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.