Growing up in my particular religious community, sacrament was an underused phrase. Sacrament is defined as a rite or object in which God is active. Augustine of Hippo (I would have wanted to have that name changed) defines sacrament as "a visible sign of an invisible reality." Christian tradition tends to look at sacraments as events done in a "church service" such as communion or baptism. But a sacrament is much more than that.
God created sacraments all around to remind us of him. His love and care. His provision. His protection. Praying a sacramental prayer is opening our senses to all God has made for us to enjoy...the beauty of his creation. The food he has provided. The promise from the rainbow. The memory of our baptism in a special place.
Psalm 96:12-13 reads "let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the LORD, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness."
Sometimes we think prayer is disconnecting from our world, and at times we may wish to do so for our own sanity. However, God would like for us to see him in the cry of a child, the wrinkled face of maturity in an older person, the teen struggling to find God, the blowing of the wind, the flake of snow as it falls to the earth. The sacraments of God to remind us of him.
C.S. Lewis wrote "there is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant me to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why he uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: he invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it."
When God wanted to show Abraham his promise he took him outside and told him to look into the dark night and attempt to count the stars. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called upon the Lord. The tree was a reminder to Abraham of the call to God every time he laid eyes on it. Sacraments. Open your prayer life to a new realm of enjoyment and possibility...pray the sacraments of his creation. Enjoy all of life that God has made for you.
Comments