I love how things are interconnected. That is part of what I love about learning and teaching – that there is a connection to be found between everything. The other day I wrote about how God’s love fills the holes of suffering much like gold mends broken pottery in the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Then, the following day, I happened to amble into our local Christian store and stumbled upon this mug:

I says, “He takes the broken pieces and makes them beautiful.” I thought, “What is this tom foolery? I was just philosophizing about that! What are the odds?” I like to take things as signs so I figured this was one such occasion. A friend of mine calls those “God winks” (hi, Jenny!) and I think that’s a pretty accurate description.

The verse on the mug is cited to be from Ecclesiastes 3:11 so being the expert in curiosity yet novice biblical scholar that I am, I had to go look it up.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

I can’t agree that is exactly what they had written on the mug, but I get how they paraphrased the way they did. However, the part of the verse that I really connected with is,  “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” I find that interesting because I think I’ve actually felt it before. Times that I have been communing with fellow parishioners in faith formation studies, or when I’m sharing Holy Communion with patients in the hospital, or discussing Catholicism with residents at at nursing home I have felt, in my chest, the “eternity” that was set there. Before having read this verse, I would have described it as feeling the expansion of the universe inside of me –  growing fullness for lack of a better description. And until I read Ecclesiastes 3:11, my healthy skepticism made me believe I was being goofy – but now it makes sense!

The most interesting part, though, is that I only feel it while in community with others. I can say that I’ve HOPED I would feel it as I study and read on my own but it just doesn’t happen. Now I’m realizing that it shouldn’t happen when I’m alone because community is what it’s all about!

“For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

So the next time you get that feeling of warm, fuzzy, glowing love in your chest when you look at your child or significant other or pet or whoever is special to you, know that you are getting a glimpse of eternity that God has set in your heart. And no matter how deep and expansive that feels, we can’t even fathom what God has designed through that little speck of Grace He placed in each of us.

Featured image: NASA astronaut photograph ISS022-E-6674