In the eye of the beholder...

"The issue is whether there is anything in our world that we can call sacred."

Henri Nouwen, "Life of the Beloved"

I'm revisiting this question today because I have thought so much about it since first posting it the other day, as well as tossing it about with others. What DO we consider sacred in the world around us? My first inclination is to say, anything that is a gift from God is sacred. That would be the people in our lives, surely gifts from God. Second, I would say nature around us is sacred. It is definitely among God's greatest gifts. Then, I thought about inanimate objects. Could we call them sacred? Today I'm using the coffee cup my mother-in-law always used when she came to visit us. She had picked the cup, from all our other mugs, because of its unique shape and feminine look. She drank coffee throughout the day and the cup got a good workout when she was visiting, so, the cup will always remind me of her. That is sacred to me. I'd feel terrible if anything happened to it. I guess sacred is in the eye of the beholder, in a way. To me, sacred is whatever God has touched and given to us. Love, heidi