Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." To have our hearts pure is to have them untainted and unadulterated by feelings of selfishness or resentment or anger or lust or greed. In short, to have our hearts pure is to have them filled to the very brim with the pure love of Christ. When our hearts are completely filled with love, then we shall see God, because God is love. Every time that we lose ourselves in a single moment and become completely absorbed by the present and love with a joy so pure and intense that everything else - all of our distractions and worries and fears- just vanish away, then we see God. Every time we stare in fascination at the rainbow swirl of an oil slick on a puddle, we see God. Every time we laugh with delight at a fuzzy caterpillar tickling our finger, we see God. Every time we lay in the grass and try to find shapes in the clouds, we see God. Every time we are moved with awe and wonder at the thunderous power of a mighty waterfall, or the glittering majesty of the Milky Way on a clear, dark night, or the intricate complexity of a symphony, or the delicate grace of an expertly carved stone sculpture, we see God. When we are exhausted and broken and hanging by a thread, but we nevertheless drop everything and run to help someone who is even more exhausted and even more broken and hanging by a single hair, then are our hearts pure and we see God. When we've forgiven someone not just seventy times seven times but seventy thousand times, and yet we can see in their eyes that they really are very sorry and they would give anything to stop messing up and we choose to forgive them once more, then are our hearts pure and we see God. God is all around us and inside us and inside everyone around us. When our hearts are pure, we are filled with God's love and we can see God, in every leaf on every tree, in every grain of sand on every beach, in every rain drop in every storm, in every person who has ever wronged us or helped us or ignored us or befriended us or hated us or loved us, in every good moment and in every bad moment. Every time we stop to smell the roses, or pet a puppy, or savor an ice cream cone, or smile at a stranger, or hug a loved one, our hearts are pure and we see God.