Our lives are woven with all kinds of relationships:
family, relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues.
There are also the specialists we are referred to, or the technicians who fix things for us.
Our relationship with each one of them can be very different.
Some neighbours may become friends, but we may not develop a friendship with certain colleagues.
Some relatives may remain quite distant, while the specialist who treated us has become a close friend.
At a certain moment in time, a choice has been made.
A decision has been taken to accept this, or that person, in our life in a closer way.
Have you ever thought that the same is true about… God! 
As you read this, it may happen that you stop and think…
Slowly, you realize that it is true…
You had never thought about it in this way, but you see it now: God invites himself into our lives.
Some people may not want to see God ‘interfering’ in their existence!
It is a little what we see in today’s 1st reading where the prophet Jeremiah is not eager for God to come too close! (Jeremiah 20:7-9).
“You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed…
I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name.”
Jeremiah laments the choice God has made of him to be a prophet.
The message he must pass on to the people in the name of God brings him insults and abuse.
But he cannot resist fulfilling his mission.
Looking at our own lives, we may somehow feel disappointed as well.
We may have thought that accepting God in our lives would bring us blessings of all kinds.
But we are sometimes faced with being laughed at, or rejected, for being believers.
We may be seen as naïve, or out of touch with the ‘real’ world.
We may lose friends because of our being followers of Christ.
God does not impose himself on us, but he proposes a life of relationship with him.
The choice to accept, or to reject, God’s invitation, God’s presence in our life, is ours.
Much depends on our decision…
A more meaningful life, and a more promising afterlife…
God’s offer is a permanent one… and the choice always remains ours…
Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/22e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2023/
It is the case for me with this Sunday’s gospel text (Mt.4:12-23) where we are told that
I heard someone say : ‘God does not know how to count’. In any case, his way of counting is not ours. The Psalmist had understood this when he wrote: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day” (Ps.90:4) . And through the prophet Isaiah, God had told us already: “My thoughts are not your thought, my ways not your ways” (Is.55:8).