The 23rd Psalm - Goodness, mercy, together with the Divine

This is the last week I will be in the beautiful Lewes, Delaware, watching the stunning sunsets in the evening, walking on the beach, feeling it getting warmer, and the days getting longer. I give up my little condo for the summer to return to my home in Westminster, MD. The wonderful part of leaving the beach is that I return to live with my adult daughter Joanna, and dearest 11 year old Christian, and to be close to my younger daughter Ruthie, her husband, and 2 month old baby Ben. 

We will have a graduation party at the end of July for Joanna receiving her MSW (Master of Social Work) from the University of Maryland. She will be job hunting for the first professional job of her life. She is so hard working, so dedicated, and has triumphed over an amazing14-year path that began with her barely eking out a high school diploma. Jo became a single parent, divorced, worked at various times as a housekeeper at a nursing home, grocery store clerk, Lyft driver, and day care worker while she started taking community college courses one by one. I have two really great graduation presents planned for her, but you have to wait to find out what they are! Want to guess?

Meanwhile, let's conclude with the beautiful 23rd Psalm. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

How can you not love this message? We are told that goodness will be with us. We sometimes get indignant about this promise, and challenge it by asking, "what about when bad things happen?" It isn't that the Divine doles out goodness to us as a guarantee, but as a constant opportunity. Just as you hope for goodness for those whom you love, God wants goodness for us. 

Mercy is the giving of compassion or forgiveness when it is also within one's power to punish or harm. Spirit chooses to be merciful to all and to love unconditionally to all. How would your life be different if you could wholly accept the abundance of compassion and forgiveness given to you always?

We have been invited to live with God in God's own home -- connected to God's heart and soul. How humbled and joy-filled am I to be asked to dwell with the Divine, how does that open door and warm welcome feel to you?