Garden of Paradoxes

When driving to visit a woman in need near our Church this morning, I noticed that the side streets in the area had not been plowed since the recent snow. However, driving on main roads today to a store or tonight downtown to a shelter, I noticed the roads had been cleared. The murder of a Miller High Life executive in an up and coming neighborhood area last week is still making big news. You really do not hear much about the other eight homicide victims this year. There were news reports of police all over this safe neighborhood. Friends of mine did a report of political districts where homicides occurred last year. Most of the homicides were not in the two areas the new police chief is focusing his attention on. Someone once told me that all persons are created equal but they are not equal. To be in solidarity with the less equal, the unimportant and marginalized of our society is tough. There are just too many of them. Yet our Gospel, good news, of our faith calls us to do this saying the last shall be first, the least shall be great, the poor are blessed, the hungry will have their full and blessed are those rejected and insulted for they shall have a great reward. Where can we look for some type of response to this paradox of life, where all persons are equal and where the preferential blessing is for the lowest, rejected, insulted and poor?

I think we can look to the Growing Power Garden to learn a little about how the kingdom of God would look on earth. In a garden the smallest of seeds can produce the largest of plants. The least creature, the worm, can be the greatest. Useless waste is grown into rich earth. The flowers do not worry or fret yet they are beautiful. A seed must be buried and die before he can rise as a fruitful plant. Care for the least details makes for a great garden. Everything in the garden, even dead plants and leaves, can be recycled into new life.

Yes in a garden, like in life, there are many paradoxes but if one has eyes to see, it can be beautiful.

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