I know what you’re thinking, “Robin Williams for Sunday Scripture?!” But hold on. I promise it will make sense.
The holidays are winding down and despite the familiar image of families gathered around Christmas trees and dinner tables, the holidays can be a lonely time for many. But it’s not just the holidays, as Mr. Williams so eloquently said, one can still feel alone even when not literally alone.
Enter “I Thirst,” a meditation based on the spiritual teachings of Blessed Mother Teresa. I only recently came across these beautiful words, but they entered my life when I needed them most. It is a lengthy prayer and is written under the pretense that Jesus wrote it to us. In it He assures us that He thirsts for us, saying “even when you are not listening, even when you doubt it could be me, I am there.”
He goes on to tell us “I come with a love for you beyond your comprehension. I come longing to console you and give you strength, to lift you up and bind all your wounds. I come with my power that I might carry you and all your burdens and to touch your heart and transform your life. I know everything about you. Nothing in your life is unimportant to me. I have loved you always. I know your needs and worries. I know what is in your heart. I know your loneliness and all your hurts. I know especially your need for love and how you are thirsting to be loved and cherished. I cherish you more than you can imagine, to the point of dying on the cross for you. I thirst for you. I thirst to love you and be loved by you. That is how precious you are to me. Come to me and I will fill your heart and heal your wounds. I will give you peace, even in all your trials. Trust in me. Ask me every day to enter and take charge of your life and I will. I will work miracles in your life. Why? Because I thirst for you. All that you have sought outside of me has only left you empty so do not cling to the things of this life. Above all, do not run from me when you fall. Give me the joy of being your Savior. It will be your belief in me and in my love that will change you. You have tried many other things in your search for happiness; why not try opening your heart to me, right now, more than you ever have before?”
I condensed the prayer here, but that, in a nutshell is what “I Thirst” tells us. We are never alone and all of us have the very best friend just waiting to listen to and love us. All we need do is ask.
I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not evil and to give you a future of hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. Jer 29:10-13
Beyond Words 