God's gift

God’s gift                                                                                          
 
Enjoy this moment God has made
knowing full well
 
you have no right to joy –
not having earned it,
 
not owning it nor having created it.
It’s a momentary gift you can never possess,
 
slipping invariably through your fingers.
Endure the suffering moments, too, God gives,
 
knowing you do not own suffering
and have not earned it.  Knowing it too shall pass.
 
We pray for joy while the teachings
emphasize the efficacy of suffering.
 
But God gives neither joy nor pain; God’s gift is life –
the undivided experience and awareness of it –
 
the ecstasy and horror, beauty and bitterness,
pride and grief, the gentility and brutality of it all.
 
O child of God, to accept the gift of God,
accept the total, eternal ownership of the Giver.