The other day, I found myself being deeply touched as I meditated again on the way Jesus knew His Father. (John 14:8-11ff) ) Teaching about His great love for all His children, He describes the way in which a dad understood his relationship with his grumpy son:

“Son, you are always with me,’ the father said, ‘and all that is mine is yours.” (Luke 15:31)

In John 17 we have a precious glimpse of Jesus praying, a short time before He was arrested. Before He yielded up His very life, He shares the intimate depths of His heart with God the Father:

“All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine.” (John 17:10)

Can you hear the Father’s voice speaking to you in those words, “My precious child, you are always with Me – and everything I have is yours” ? As we hear Him tell us that all He has is ours, let’s be sure to reply in return, ‘And all I have, Father God, is Yours.

Make the most of every moment. (Eph. 5:15-16)

At the heart of the teaching of the eighteenth-century French soul-director, Jean-Pierre Caussade, lay his belief in ‘the sacrament of the present moment.’ He wrote that ‘The present moment is always full of infinite treasure. It contains far more than you can possibly grasp.’

Pause for a moment. What treasures do you become aware of in the stillness?

Has He not given us so very many things to thank Him for?

Caussade writes that it is through our faith and love that we can lay hold of these treasures:

Faith is the measure of its riches: what you find in the present moment is according to the measure of your faith. Love also is the measure: the more the heart loves, the more it rejoices in what God provides.

The will of God presents itself at each moment like an immense ocean that the desire of your heart cannot empty; yet you will drink from that ocean according to your faith and love.

I love that idea of the ‘will of God presenting itself’ moment by moment. In each and every moment, there is the opportunity to encounter the Lord and trust ourselves to Him and to His will in our lives. He holds us in His presence always. Sometimes – often, maybe – we only know this by faith, but as we give ourselves and our moments to Him, we are trusting ourselves to His will. I often urge us to consult the Lord before we take action: this is that. ‘Lord, what would You have me do? Is what I am choosing to do now in Your will for this moment?’ And also, ‘Lord, please help me to trust to Your will in what I am enduring right now.’ This is all part of the sacrament of the present moment.

When the present moment is full of challenges

It is comparatively easy to still our hearts to rest in the Lord’s closeness and provision, and to drink from His ocean of beauty in the loveliness of an English summer at its best – but how about if we are living in fear of the results of a set of diagnostic tests, or if we have just been rejected in an important relationship? What if we live in a city that is being strafed by drone and missile attacks – or have no idea at all where our next meal is coming from, and have to compete with our neighbours to get even a cupful of flour or a jerrycan of water?

When we are left with nothing but the present moment, can we still find ‘infinite treasure’ in it?

I quoted a poem In Vale of Tears that a young woman wrote when she discovered, at the age of 19, that she was terminally ill:

You do not have to cope with everything –
only with this moment.
This moment is all the reality there is.
If everything seems to come on top of you at once –
give it to God.
Tell Him you can’t cope on your own
so you are giving Him the whole mess to sort out.
Then forget the future and your worries:
They are no longer your worries.

[Allie’s Song by Allison Brown. Copyright Tony and Brid Browne 1999, Herne Bay Kent]

Caussade suggests that we make a rule to ‘Leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace,’ at such times. We ‘cast our burdens’ on Him because He cares about us. (1 Pet. 5:7) As Jesus reminds us:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Lk. 12:6-7)

Paul likewise counsels us to:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6-7)

If we do not cast our burdens on the Lord, we are likely to become angry. But embracing the sacrament of the present moment can go a long way to help us overcome this and many other inward tensions.

There is in this a delicate balance between remembering our past failures, and allowing the Lord to remind us that He is neither limited nor disgusted by them. At the same time, let’s not forget those we have not yet brought to Him! In this present moment it is good to mind to call to mind the ways and occasions in which He has helped us before, and to allow those memories to become a springboard for faith in our present challenges. *

We can look at the future and know that Jesus will be with us and that He will not leave us, whatever it holds.

Praise God for people like the Carmelite nun Elizabeth of the Trinity, who found a way to live each moment for the Lord, despite suffering greatly with Addison’s disease. She wrote that,

“Every happening, every event, every suffering as also every joy, is a sacrament that gives God to the soul.”

To be sure, ‘sacrament’ is a word not we often use in our everyday conversations! Its usage came about when Bible translators were looking for something to express the Greek word mystērion (as in Ephesians 5:32, for example). That’s when they turned to the Latin word sacramentum, which means a ‘sacred or solemn oath.’ As Roman soldiers embarked on their new life in the army, they were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Roman emperor, and Tertullian likened the baptism of a new-born Christian to this oath.

Augustine went further and developed the idea that,

. . . a sacramentum is a sign that sanctifies – makes holy – because it is efficacious – produces the intended effect. For instance, Christ and the Holy Spirit make effective, through grace, the cleansing that water signifies in baptism.

Calling a sacrament ‘a visible sign of invisible grace,’ Augustine referred to a sacramentum as a ‘sacrum signum’ – ‘a sign of a sacred thing.’

When Caussade speaks of a sacrament being ‘an outward sign of an inward grace,’ he was wanting to help us look on the present moment as a sacred thing, whatever our outward circumstances, because Jesus is present and living it with us.

This way of living in the present moment is a powerful antidote against indulging disappointments and empty regrets on the one hand, and distracting thoughts about future events on the other – not that there is anything wrong with proper prayer and planning. It is not a quest for inner bliss, because it enables us to share the pain of those who are going through deeply grievous things, and to pray and mourn deeply for them.

Lord, we cannot change the past, let alone solve future challenges before they happen, but what we can and most willing do is to give ourselves wholeheartedly to You in this present moment. Caussade counsels us to

Offer yourselves to God like a clean, smooth canvas and do not worry ourselves about what God may choose to paint on it. At each moment, feel only the stroke of His brush.

Isn’t that a special image?

It can be a challenging one though. When stroke after stroke is landing on us and the storms are strong, it can be hard to believe that the Artist’s brush is really involved. And when we feel overwhelmed by the extent of our sin and the depth of our failures – as I certainly do- it is all too easy to think that we have destroyed His work beyond repair, and that all the Lord can do is make the best of the bad job that we have left Him with.

No! says Caussade. ‘Don’t despair over your faults and the harm they do – it can be repaired.’ Phew! Now there is a phrase to hold on tight to! If you have ever watched The Repair Shop on BBC you will know that even the most damaged canvases can be restored, the colours and brushstrokes be re-worked and the whole picture be brought back to life and glory.

For that is what God is about. Hard though it can be to believe during intense times, we are all ‘being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ (2 Cor. 3:18 NASB)

Take a moment now to come into His presence. Maybe listen to our exquisite Purer than a Lily reflection and meditate on these things with Him. May you find His grace and presence filling your inward being and infusing your outward circumstances as you do so.