new church life: september/october 2014
of the Academy – in 137 years or on beyond its horizon.
The Academy exists between dream and destiny. We have come a long
way from the original Cherry Street classrooms in Philadelphia to a sprawling
campus in Bryn Athyn, but there are no guarantees about the future. It is up to
all of us – administrators, teachers, alumni, parents, students, supporters – to
keep faith with the vision and make the dream come true.
(BMH)
a thankful heart
A wise man wrote: If someone gave me a dish of sand and told me there were
particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them
with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to find them. But if I took a magnet and
swept it through the sand, it would draw the almost invisible particles to itself
and I would see the beauty of the hidden treasure that had been there all along.
An unthankful heart, like my clumsy fingers in the sand, fails to discover
the goodness, beauty and myriad mercies hidden within the ordinary everyday
experiences of our earthly lives.
But let a thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds
the iron in the sand, so will it find in every event some heavenly blessing. Only
the iron in the Lord’s sand is gold.
(This little parable was adapted from a volume, Emblems, by the New
Church scientist and author Leo H. Grindon, published in London in 1869.)
(WEO)
the grass on your side of the fence is greener than
you think
There’s something in human nature that causes us to be dissatisfied with what
we have and to focus on the downside of our circumstances, while at the same
time overestimating the happiness we think th ings beyond our reach would
bring us.
The truth, if only we can learn to see it, is that the best things for us are
those we already have. Is not the Lord in His providence leading us every
moment closer to heaven, whatever our worldly circumstances might be? Are
there not bits of gold to be found even while plodding through a stretch of dry
sand?
Setting our hearts on worldly pleasures beyond our reach makes us
indifferent to the spiritual gifts we’ve already received, in which case they are
as good as lost – leaving us without a treasure on earth or in heaven!
Here is something you may have heard a hundred times, but it’s always
worth reflecting on anew: “Those who trust in the Divine (know that) all things
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