Seeing More Clearly

[bluidkiti]

Seeing More Clearly

On the occasion of his fiftieth wedding anniversary, a man said to his wife, "When I married you fifty years ago, I thought I could never love you more than I did then. But I was wrong. After fifty years of being with you, I love you more, so much more." Fifty years of shared life enabled the man to see much more clearly who his wife really was, and to appreciate more deeply all that she meant to him.

As his seeing became clearer, his love grew deeper, and he regarded his marriage with an ever growing joy. Here is a standard by which this marriage could be regarded as truly successful. Perhaps there is a similar standard by which we could judge the tenor of our lives. If we could say about our lives what the man in the story said about his marriage, that would be a sign that our lives have been truly successful. If we love life more in the present than we did in the past, then the man's experience in the story would be our experience as well. If we have gradually grown more conscious of love, of creation, of God, then our appreciation of life will have increased. Having seen the gifts of life more clearly as our years have passed, we will have become more alive. And if we have responded with a more conscious love to what we have seen, our lives will have gradually grown more precious to us through the passage of time.

Lord, sharpen my vision that I may grow in appreciation for your gift of life. May I respond fully to all that it offers as well as to all that it demands.

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