The noun, Rumination, means a deep considered thought about something.

Last weekend the Gary Diocese Decaons and their wives attended the annual Deacon Retreat at Lindendwood Retreat Center in Donaldson, Indiana.

It was a very nice retreat and spiritually helpful.

As we were sitting in the meeting room at the retreat center listening to various presentations, I was able to look forward from my seat and see through the window outside to the adjacent lake and forest which were glistening under the fall sun. The colors on the changing leaves on the trees were the brightest of reds and yellows and oranges. It was very beautiful.

However, on the bottom of the big window was a large black bug that seemed to distract me from the wonderful scene of nature that could be viewed beyond it. The bug eventually caught my curiosity, so I walked to the window and saw a huge black moth resting on the outside of the window pane. 

I thought at first what an unfortunate distraction. 

But then I thought about what this moth might be teaching me. It was positioned to see God’s beauty in nature despite the distractions that were happening on the inside of the room with people talking and moving about and me tapping on the window trying to get it to move. None of that mattered to the bug. It simply breathed in God’s presence in nature so to speak and did not leave until after sunset.

I then thought to myself, “Do I breathe in God’s presence in nature in all of its splendor? Or do I get distracted with the movement of things in life and fail to see the gifts God is constantly showering us with in his created beauty?”

Maybe I should be more like a moth!

By Deacon Tom Gryzbek