Clean

"Wash me and I will be whiter than snow"

-Psalm 51:7

The Potter saw fit to form our bodies in such a way that they require daily maintenence, regular cleansing, a ritual routine of renewal.

Why, then, do we consider it anomalous that our spirits require the same sort of regime?  When we wash, do we wash once and for all?  When a toddler is bathed, does he feel embarrasment or shame when bathtime rolls around again?  More to the point, would a good parent chide the child for needing such care? 

Of course not, certainly not, and laughably, decidedly, unquestionably not.

Let us settle in our hearts, once and for all, that we have a Loving parent in God.  When the world we are steeped in soils our souls, when weariness overtakes our best intentions and well laid plans, when all we can do is ask Abba to clean us, let us feel Him gently lift us from the grime and from the dust, let us soak in His tenderness and His unrelenting love, let us know that in the end, it is He Who makes us "good", as He did "In the Beginning", so He does in me and you.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God"

-Psalm 51:10

  ~***~

Birth

"The night is far spent; the day is at hand"

-Romans 13:12

***

Dawn displaces darkness

shooing away wintry shadows

nudging me out of my nocturne

and blowing on the smouldering coals

of long dormant dreams

held in abeyance

rousing them to life with the soft breath of the season

bidding them take flight after their long repose...

I pause for just a moment

in this space between spaces

letting my eyes adjust to new light

to new Day...

Then, flooded with freedom, 

feeling the updraft of Your faithfulness

 I take my first step

letting new legs carry me

into come-what-may...

...Lead on, my Lord...

Lead Thou me on...

***

 "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?"

-Song of Solomon 8:5

Attention to Detail...

"See how the flowers of the field grow, they do not labor or spin, yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these...if this is how God cares for the grass of the field, will He not much more care for you?...So do not worry."

-Matthew 6:28-33

~***~

Our tendency to "toil", to "labor and spin", is tenacious at times and can so easily get the best of us.  When we take our eyes off the little things around us - (my mom calls them "the post-it notes from God") - the things that clearly show God's concern over even the seemingly inconsequetial, the cosmos we see when we "consider the lilies"...when we take our eyes off these things, it can, indeed, send us "laboring" and "spinning", forgetting the Maestro Who meticulously conducts His composition, the compassionate Creator Who directs the minutiae of our lives and tenderly attends to the fine print on every page.

May we come to know the peace of being held in Heaven's hand; may we know the comfort of being cared for by the One Who covers and cradles it all.

~***~

"Christ above you, Christ below you, Christ behind you, Christ before you."

-a Celtic blessing