Sunshine

Selecting this picture today is what might be called "the power of positive thinking..." The one thing that is usually certain about 4th of July weekend in Texas...sunny weather...not this year. It has been raining most of the week, and chance are it will rain most of today. I can be philosophical about the need for rain for just so long, and then it really starts to wear on my nerves! I need some hot sun...soon.

Yesterday I wrote about the melancholy of the missing tooth...this morning, the memory of what I wrote reminds me of something that Brian McLaren talks about quite often...what you're paying attention to determines what you miss. If we apply Brian's principle to the missing tooth, I guess it means that looking for the missing tooth results in missing all the teeth that are present. But it's a funny thing, the mind...and the body. When you have a missing tooth, your tongue is almost uncontrollably preoccupied with feeling in that empty space. Maybe this is partly because we assume the presence of all the teeth that are there, and don't need to comfort ourselves by touching them to be sure. Whereas the missing...it's supposed to be there, we expect it to be there...and yet there is a hole...an empty space that requires explanation.

There is a story in the gospels about a shepherd going to look for the one sheep that is missing from the herd....99 are present...but 1 is missing...and the shepherd cannot rest until the 1 is found and brought home. The scripture even says that there is rejoicing among the angels in heaven when the 1 missing sheep is brought home. In the larger scheme of things, I think the message of the missing sheep is kind of like the missing tooth...every individual...every person...every sheep...every tooth...is noticed by its absence. The presence or absence of even 1 person makes a tremendous impact on us...but perhaps we only notice the impact when the person is absent.