Good happens immeasurably!

Do things happen in threes?

In Clint Eastwood’s recent excellent film, “Letters from Iwo Jima,” a young Japanese soldier tells his commander that the commander has twice saved his life. The commander smiles and remarks that things happen in threes. And he soon saves the boy’s life again. The young soldier is one of the few Japanese survivors of Iwo Jima.

While this makes fine drama, I’m not all that happy with the premise of things happening in threes. For one thing, it’s superstitious and carelessly submits to a capricious fate. For another, it’s not at all pleasant to contemplate when the “things” that might happen are bad things. One keeps waiting for, even expecting, the third bad thing.

As to good things happening in threes, well I've thought about that too. I believe with all my being that God, that higher power who created the universe, is wholly good. And that He expresses Himself/Herself in goodness, intelligence, and beauty. And that ceaseless outpouring of the divine nature in our human experience is not limited to tidy little clusters of three good things here, or three good happenings there. Three is too tiny when we’re talking about universal good.

Since Easter is this Sunday, it might be worthwhile to think about three in another context – Jesus’ three days in the tomb. At the end of those three days, his biographies say, an angel rolled away the stone and sat on it. Don’t you love it? Sat on it. “So much for you, big, tough, rock. You cannot bury Christ in a cave.” So Jesus walked out. What was he doing in that cave for three days? Recommitting to Life? Re-forgiving his enemies? Recommitting to strengthening his badly shaken disciples?

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“Jesus' three days' work in the sepulchre
set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless
and Love to be the master of hate.”
Mary Baker Eddy
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So maybe it's OK to ask, what could I accomplish in three spiritually focused days? Long silence.

The best I know how to do right now, is one day at a time. And to seek out the good in each day, and participate in it, with as much attention to seeing things through God's loving eyes, as I know how. And to value the good in each day, and thank the Creator for it.