TERESITA T. CRUZ & CELERY
Three years ago, Celery posted a reflection here entitled “The Brighter Side of Suffering.”* In it, many of us may have recognized a familiar experience of how God’s graces and gifts come through tribulations, and it just needs our response of faith, love, and faithfulness to make “miracles” happen, to see how things eventually work out or make sense and … that God never abandons us.
Recently and unexpectedly, Celery just realized that what she had called a “back-to-back” phenomenon is comparable to a coin. But not a regular coin. On one side is suffering; on the other – God’s relentless love. Compassion. Fidelity. Forgiveness. Redemption. Life and Light.
And in one spontaneous moment, Teresita saw this spiritual two-sided coin of pain and suffering and God’s love and blessing as a graphic symbol of an inseparable pair indeed, as Celery described it to her!
A regular coin is part of a currency, considered a “measure of value.” The spiritual coin or currency is also a measure of value, only different. Each one of us decides how to treat both.
We pray humbly to accumulate as much of this spiritual coin or currency as we can while on earth, so we may have the wherewithal to one day cross over to where God waits, occupying not only both sides of the coin but all sides of heaven.
We were surprised by the twin Elijah moments which seemed out of the ordinary. But perhaps God was passing by, and he doesn’t do ordinary.
*September 14, 2019
I love this article! The back to back of a coin, but not an ordinary coin. One side is suffering, the other – God’s relentless love, mercy, light! I’ve never thought of this before. But now that I’m older I see this everywhere. It’s how we respond to the one side of the coin of trials, mistakes, pain, sufferings. By trusting God , he was teaching us to overcone them and we grew stronger because of them. “God doesn’t do ordinarily “.
How true! So sad if we only see the suffering side of the coin, not knowing that if we quickly flip it, aha, there is God’s relentless love awaiting us. In fact, the Source of this Spiritual Coin probably does not allow one side to exist – without the other! A pair indeed!
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