He looked down and saw a tiny jonquil looking up at him. And he forgot the majesty of mountains and valleys in concentrating on the delicate, trembling beauty of this single mountain flower. It stood there in the freedom of the mountain air glorifying God. Its life, so brief and vulnerable, was an act of praise as everyone’s life should be. It did not worry about what it would accomplish in life or leave behind. Nor did it fear for its own brief existence. It simply was. How much more should we human beings be witnesses to the glory of simply existing? We will live forever. Our existence alone is enough, and we are glorious apart from any work we may produce or any life we may engender. But we have to learn that liberating truth by meeting God in the soul’s own core. God’s love and acceptance of us makes possible our own self-love and self-acceptance.
—from the book Francis: The Journey and the Dream
by Murray Bodo, OFM
