September 4: All the Things He Never Knew, Faith in God, Linda Gregg, "How It Works," Punny Fairy Tale, Adventures of Stickman

He [Ives] prayed, his eyes upon the painting of the Mother and Child near the altar.  He prayed for his dead adoptive father, and for his mother and father whom he had never known.  For all the things he never knew.

At the end of his life, Ives will never know his birth mother and father or why he was given up for adoption.  He will never understand why his son died at such a young age, or why he struggled with grief and anger for over three decades.  Ives will never understand why there is so much suffering in the world.  Yet, he prays for all of these unknowable things.  All the unanswerable questions of his life.  He gives them up to God.

I think that's one of the reasons I've been so angry these last couple of weeks.  I've been trying too hard to make sense of things that are senseless.  I see no reason behind my sister's death.  Or my brother's.  I don't understand why I've been teaching for the university for over 20 years and will probably never be offered a full-time position.  Why does my wife have bipolar disorder and sexual addiction?  Why haven't I won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry?  Why is Donald Trump running for President of the United States?

I will never know the answers to any of those questions.  Yet, I also believe that everything happens for a purpose.  I have to, because the idea of a completely random universe doesn't really work for me.  For instance, before my sister became very ill, I was forced to leave my job at the surgery center where she had been my boss for 17 years.  At the time, I was confused and angry.  I didn't get God's plan at all.  Now, I understand.  I would never have been able to continue in that job without my sister there.  It would simply have been too difficult.  That was not the molecules of my life bouncing around randomly.  It happened for a reason.

Yet, I will never have all the answers, no matter how hard I search for them.  That's where faith in God comes into play.  Faith is the answer to any unanswerable question.  I have had to rely on my faith quite a bit these last few weeks.  It's been difficult.  Really difficult.  And it continues to be difficult.  Like Ives, I have turned to prayer for all the unknowable things in my life, and that has helped.

Once upon a time, a woodsman named Figaro lived in Firwood Forest.  Figaro spent his days tracking stags and moose.  He was known as the greatest hunter in all of the kingdom.

One morning, Figaro saw a wild boar rooting in a patch of mushrooms.  Without pause, Figaro shot the boar with an arrow, killing it instantly.  He hauled the boar back to his cottage and slaughtered it.  That night, he roasted it over a roaring fire and feasted.

The next morning, Figaro awoke deathly ill.  For three days, he suffered in bed.  On the third day, Figaro died.

When Figaro got to heaven, he stood before God and asked Him, "Why did I have to die?"

God looked at Figaro and shrugged.  "I was boared."

Moral of the story:  Always cook pork to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

And Saint Marty lived happily ever after.

How It Works

by:  Linda Gregg

I will tell you a story about
how death works.  One year
when he was hunting,
my father lay down
by a cliff on the top
of a mountain.
As he lay there mostly asleep,
he heard a breathing
close to his face.
The breathing of a mountain
lion.  When he looked,
there was no lion.
When he rolled over
and looked down the ledge
he saw a great eagle
an arm-reach away
hovering over a huge space.

Adventures of STICKMAN