Musings Along Life's Way: Friends

So Many Gifts

There are so many gifts
Still unopened from your birthday,
There are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to you by God.

The Beloved does not mind repeating,
"Everything I have is also yours."

Please forgive Hafiz and the Friend
If we break into a sweet laughter
When you heart complains of being thirsty
When ages ago
Every cell in your soul
Capsized forever
Into this infinite golden sea.

....
Indeed, a lover's pain is this sleeping,
This sleeping,
When God just rolled over and gave you
Such a big good-morning kiss!

There are so many gifts, my dear,
Still unopened from your birthday.

O, there are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to your life
From God.

I have always loved this poem by Sufi poet, Hafiz. He is telling us that life is a gift, every moment of our lives a beautiful, wonderful gift -- a birthday present from God. Reading it, I imagine myself as a small child, absolutely surrounded by a mountain of gifts -- so many still unopened. It is hard for us to imagine in our day to day lives that we are so blessed, that every moment of every day is just another "hand-crafted present that has been sent to us by God." Hafiz gives us this wonderful reminder. In the third stanza Hafiz refers to God as "the Friend." By doing so he speaks of the special intimacy that God seeks with humankind. Imagine God as a friend.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
--Aristotle

I am a true and loyal friend when your concerns are mine, when your loves are mine, when our joy is made complete in our togetherness. We want the very best for our friends, hoping that they might find their way through life with an open and free heart. Hafiz is saying this is what God hopes for us ­ that as we move along life’s way we might find and open all the gifts of life that our Friend, God, has strewn about. He tells us that it is like awakening with the kiss of God on our lips. This is a startling, intimate image of friendship.

This Sunday we are inviting our friends to church. It is because we have received such rich gifts from God that we want to share them with those who are closest to us. It will be a joy to greet our friends this Sunday in Church. See you, and your friends, in church.

Love,

David