Advent Devotion 19 – Gravity

In the recent popular the movie, “Gravity,” the setting for the story is outer space. The movie involves astronauts on a mission. The technology in the movie is amazing. The views of space and the earth are stunning. In the course of the story, characters become detached from the space station. Untethered. Loose. Without gravity for grounding. Floating, floating, floating. What will happen?

In several scenes in the movie, there are references to religion. In one scene, a character mentions not knowing how to pray. In another scene in the space module, there is a picture of a saint. Maybe it is St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. There is the image of the Ganges River in the sun, a river holy to Hindus. There is a statue of a Budai in one scene. There is a visit from someone who has died. All these things are indications of the spiritual life. Technology is well and good, but we need the life of the spirit to be tethered, grounded, and secure. The spiritual life gives us a context in which to develop and use technology. Technology is a tool. But you have to know what you want to make, or do, or accomplish. Then you can use the tool. Without spiritual grounding, we don’t know how to understand and apply our technological capabilities. As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, our technology gets ahead of our morality and then there is trouble.

This Advent time is a season to reground ourselves in our spiritual underpinnings, our spiritual framework, our spiritual sensitivities. That is our tether, our connection, our sustaining link to life in its fullest.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways, my ways,” says Yahweh.
“As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the sower and bread for food,
so will my word be
that goes forth from my mouth:
it will not return to me empty,
but will carry out my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
And you will go out joyfully,
and be led out in peace;
the mountains and hills before you
will break into cries of joy,
and all the trees in the countryside
will clap their hands. . .”
Isaiah 55:8-12

Prayer: May this Advent season be a time for us to connect, to feel our roots, to know our grounding in love and compassion. May we come to know our place in an awesome and vast universe. Tethered by love may we flourish and thrive. Amen.