Chimes

I spent way too much and bought some wind chimes at the Herb Fest last month.  (I usually
have better impulse control, but sometimes…you know.)  I’m glad I did.  They are large as these
things go, and they sing with a deep resonance when a modest breeze blows, and they fill the
house from the courtyard outside with a chant-like hum that is profoundly soothing…at least for
me—they probably bug the neighbors some.

May is a full month—the events and the images swirl around us, maybe too like buzzing bees.  
Mother’s Day is surely topmost in our minds—and God bless ’em, it darn well should be.  But
there are so many others:  May Day (do we anywhere have a May Queen in Beaumont?), proms
and finals and graduations and parties at schools, Memorial Day and all the remembrances of
those who served, as well as those who still do.  God bless and watch over them, too.  And there’
s Cinco de Mayo, too, which I have always enjoyed.  So many good reasons for parties!

But deep in the swirl of all this, for those who have ears to hear and a sense of God’s time, the
Day of Pentecost will be the undermost chime tone that weaves through all these other days and
celebrations.  What draws our good times and our sadder remembrances together will be the note
of hope and promise that gives all our times meaning and direction.  In all our times, God is at
work.

Easter celebrating passes on to something more immediate, and more demanding.  The giving of
the Spirit at Pentecost is God’s insistence that he is not finished with the story.  The Holy Spirit
is God’s Chimes—sounding into every moment, and filling the world.  His breeze will blow, his
breath will go forth, and we will hear the echoes even in our darkest corners.  He has promised—
he will renew the face of the whole earth.  All will hear his melody and be healed and changed
and made unafraid.  We are given the grace to vibrate to his tone, and we, even we, will be the
instruments of his new and holy symphony.  

Every chime you hear, remember to sing in your heart.

                                            In Christ,
                                             Frank  Fuller+
Rectitudes~~~
Thoughts for May, 2008