During the past year the Baha'i Center in Marietta's had been the focal point for numerous activities. This pictures were took in the first floor by the dinning area and Children class room.
Spiritual Spring
By Dee Dombach, Special to The Sentinel, March 12, 2009
It’s hard to remember the fragrance of lilacs or the yellow of daffodils in January. Signs of spring are excitedly shared in my family — from the first sighting of mergansers on the Conodoguinet to the faint calls of spring peepers. After a long winter, those first glimmers of springtime make our hearts glad and renew our hope. The world that has been cold, dull, and seemingly dead promises to burst into life again.
Spring also brings work. A warm, late-winter day finds me in the yard, pruning shrubs, raking dead leaves from garden beds and cutting the skeletons of last year’s flowers to allow new growth.
Spring is pregnant with meaning and metaphor.
Spiritually, springtime teaches us that God never ceases to renew the world. The great world religions recognize this truth — each one teaches that “God will never leave us nor forsake us.” Bahais recognize this process as Progressive Revelation. God makes His will and precepts manifest through the great prophets, pouring out His light and life, and the world is renewed.
Over time, as we travel further from the Light, the message becomes fainter, as we layer our traditions, doctrines and dogmas over the message and descend into spiritual winter. Then, in the fullness of time, God sends a Messenger. Each Messenger manifests God’s word for their day and time, and we believe Baha’u’llah has brought the message for today.
Abdul-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son, said, “God leaves not His children comfortless, but, when the darkness of winter overshadows them, then again He sends His Messengers, the Prophets, with a renewal of the blessed spring. The Sun of Truth appears again on the horizon of the world shining into the eyes of those who sleep, awaking them to behold the glory of a new dawn. Then again will the tree of humanity blossom and bring forth the fruit of righteousness for the healing of the nations.
“I pray that you will all strive to bring each child of God into the radiance of the Sun of Truth, that the darkness may be dissipated by the penetrating rays of its glory, and the winter’s hardness and cold may be melted away by the merciful warmth of its shining.”
Just as mankind goes through spiritual cycles, so too do individuals. As I clear old debris from tender flower shoots, I think about what I have to clear out of my soul to allow new life to grow.
Christ said, “Ye must be born again.” If our spirits are to be reborn, we must do the hard work of clearing away the detritus which holds back our spiritual spring. Our job is to watch for the signs and to follow the light.
Dee Dombach and her husband, Scott, are members of the Carlisle Bahai Community. They welcome comments at carlislebahai@yahoo.com. Visit them on the Web at http://www.carlislebahai.wikispaces.com/.
Spiritual Spring
By Dee Dombach, Special to The Sentinel, March 12, 2009
It’s hard to remember the fragrance of lilacs or the yellow of daffodils in January. Signs of spring are excitedly shared in my family — from the first sighting of mergansers on the Conodoguinet to the faint calls of spring peepers. After a long winter, those first glimmers of springtime make our hearts glad and renew our hope. The world that has been cold, dull, and seemingly dead promises to burst into life again.
Spring also brings work. A warm, late-winter day finds me in the yard, pruning shrubs, raking dead leaves from garden beds and cutting the skeletons of last year’s flowers to allow new growth.
Spring is pregnant with meaning and metaphor.
Spiritually, springtime teaches us that God never ceases to renew the world. The great world religions recognize this truth — each one teaches that “God will never leave us nor forsake us.” Bahais recognize this process as Progressive Revelation. God makes His will and precepts manifest through the great prophets, pouring out His light and life, and the world is renewed.
Over time, as we travel further from the Light, the message becomes fainter, as we layer our traditions, doctrines and dogmas over the message and descend into spiritual winter. Then, in the fullness of time, God sends a Messenger. Each Messenger manifests God’s word for their day and time, and we believe Baha’u’llah has brought the message for today.
Abdul-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son, said, “God leaves not His children comfortless, but, when the darkness of winter overshadows them, then again He sends His Messengers, the Prophets, with a renewal of the blessed spring. The Sun of Truth appears again on the horizon of the world shining into the eyes of those who sleep, awaking them to behold the glory of a new dawn. Then again will the tree of humanity blossom and bring forth the fruit of righteousness for the healing of the nations.
“I pray that you will all strive to bring each child of God into the radiance of the Sun of Truth, that the darkness may be dissipated by the penetrating rays of its glory, and the winter’s hardness and cold may be melted away by the merciful warmth of its shining.”
Just as mankind goes through spiritual cycles, so too do individuals. As I clear old debris from tender flower shoots, I think about what I have to clear out of my soul to allow new life to grow.
Christ said, “Ye must be born again.” If our spirits are to be reborn, we must do the hard work of clearing away the detritus which holds back our spiritual spring. Our job is to watch for the signs and to follow the light.
Dee Dombach and her husband, Scott, are members of the Carlisle Bahai Community. They welcome comments at carlislebahai@yahoo.com. Visit them on the Web at http://www.carlislebahai.wikispaces.com/.
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