Pure and simple

Do forgive me if I bore you with writing styles. Who cares? I do, ever since Sr Mary Lou taught me 10th grade English, then promoted me to co-editor of the yearbook.

I see that Peter grabs a word and is not afraid to overuse it:

Pure

We saw pure souls and pure hearts in 1.22.

Then, five verses (2.2) later we are drinking pure spiritual milk.

Ah, thinks Peter, now that I said “spiritual” once (just now, in 1.22), let’s see if I can use it some more.

Three verses later, in 2.5, we are a spiritual house offering spiritual sacrifices.

Where am I going with this?

We’ll probably never know.

My friend Earl will probably write, with a good insight, that will encourage me. David from Switzer Ave, where I grew up, may present it to me in a different version where it gets a whole new depth of meaning.

But on Tuesday of last week, it was Carol who responded to “pure heart,” and what she wrote grabbed my heart:

I started a study in Matthew, and I got as far as Matt 5:8, 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

I stopped there, with tears in I my eyes, and thought,

that’s what I want—to some day see God.  

What more could I ever want?  

Initially I thought of a pure heart as belonging to someone who had clean thoughts, clean actions, a clean. In my study, though, I discovered that its meaning is deeper, more like ‘an undivided heart’; one that is solely focused on and devoted to God.

It’s how I try to live each day.  

An undivided heart.

Pure and simple.