We are Meant for This

Hello, Creator Family –

          Hope you are enjoying the “snow days” from a warm, safe spot. It has been a beautiful reminder for me that Winter--the seasons and the passage of time--still occurs, even though the pandemic seems to have suspended and upended so much. It can’t touch this: the certainty of a winter storm. What else can’t it touch?

          Recently, I was talking with a friend whose heart is heavy-laden with the trials and tribulations of our present life. I say, our present life because he was weighed down by concerns that seemed to expand exponentially from our inner self, our spirit, out to encompass and embrace this broken and desperate world. There is no wonder that he suffers so, that so many suffer under this sense of doom that seems to blanket our every turn even as the snow covers the ground—but we are not meant for this.

          The rhythmic blows of separation and incongruity ripple through the heart destined for wholeness and love. The tap, tap, tap assault of politics and personal interplay create spider cracks in the spirit and sadness, and fear resonates with each pounding blow—but we are not meant for this.

          Eyes, our eyes, are the “window of the soul,” said Plato. That’s true of those who look into the heart of the bearer, but what of those looking out? Eyes see, not a world untouched by human hands, but a world tamed by mind and spirit. The eyes see only as the heart knows, and the mind understands, and spirit lights; the eyes are our windows through which we see the mirror—we are meant for this.

          Now in this time of life, life bracketed by eternal hope and divine intention, we resonate with the sound of angels’ breath. Taking into ourselves the broken and fallen earth-scape, we are touched by God, and in cold isolation, feel the warming ruah of the Holy Spirit bringing is alive in the Body—we are meant for this.

          Half a country away, I wanted to grab this friend of mine and not let go. I wanted to stare into his eyes and tell him of the love and life that God breathes there—there in his spirit. I wanted to show him that the cracks are not fractures and the breaking is not broken, and the world is not emptied of compassion and peace. Though the cold and winter of heart and soul seems prevailing, the fire of God’s love is ever burning—we are to know this.

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter

Long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.
            In the Bleak Midwinter, by Christina Rossetti