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Aware that my four-year-old neighbor had developed an interest in coins, I shifted through the plastic container where my husband keeps the coins leftover from our trips to various countries over the years. I gathered a stack of foreign coins and placed them on the fence that encloses Bo’s yard, knowing he would be delighted to find such a treasure. And he was. He was even willing to listen as I, in full teacher mode, told him these coins were from faraway places like Great Britain, Tanzania, Cambodia. When I finally stopped talking, he had only one question: “Do you have any Nashville money that you want to give me?”
It’s a bit of a stretch but this incident brought to mind a sense of the far and near in my life, the rhythm of looking to worlds beyond myself and of looking closer to home, into myself. At times my focus is on what is external; at times my focus is more internal. Like breathing out and breathing in, both these modes are essential to life. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we are to be about the will of our Father. We are to act in the world in response to God’s promptings. Yet it is worth remembering that Jesus frequently went off by himself to pray, to focus inward before moving outward in ministry.
Trips abroad have allowed me to experience other cultures, to encounter people who live in ways different than I do. They have opened my mind and my heart to an external world. Coming home has given me a familiar place in which to sit and consider an inner world - every bit as amazing. May we all find rich coinage in both the diverse world around us and the incredible world within us.