Wherever We Journey, All Our Movements, and The Practice of Love

The gold archway represents the eternal glory of God as Creator and Sustainer of the universe, God’s character and reputation. As an arch it’s a doorway between heaven and earth. The naked and vulnerable son of God growing in the womb of Mary, his umbilical cord connected to both his mother’s nurturing body and the eternal mystery and expanse of God. Jesus himself a doorway to the abundant resurrection life of God sitting beside the forgotten, healing the sick and rejected, finding the lost and abandoned, dancing with the healed and delivered, and dying with the condemned. Love is the resurrection power that transforms barren tombs into generous wombs.

“If we are God’s children it might be helpful to imagine ourselves sometimes as in her womb. There could not be a closer image of warmth, security and protection. There we have all our needs provided for in perfect measure, as the baby receives oxygen and nourishment without deficiency or excess through the umbilical cord. In God’s womb we can stretch and turn in every direction, just as the baby, suspended in water, is as happy upside down as the right way up, and in the early months can exercise its limbs freely. Wherever God our mother takes us we will be safe and provided for; whether in cold or heat, storm or drought, we will be protected. Wherever we journey to we will still be at home, for the presence of our mother’s body is closer to us than our geographical location. God is closer to us than the ground we stand on. Even though we have never seen our mother, perhaps are quite unaware of her, or even deny her existence, she is in perfect and constant intimacy with us, and when we are born into the light of her presence we will recognize that she has been with us all along.”

“Let Your love play upon my voice and rest on my silence. Let it pass through my heart into all my movements. Let Your love, like stars, shine in the darkness of my sleep and dawn in my awakening. Let it burn in the flame of my desires and flow in all currents of my own love. Let me carry Your love in my life as a harp does its music, and give it back to You at last with my life.”