The meaning, or essence, of life is relationship. Everything is in relationship—from subatomic particles to parts of a cell to numbers to stars and galaxies. It takes things being in proper relationship to create and maintain harmony—on a micro and macro level.
Humans are also in relationship with each other, of course. Only it's no longer so proper, as it used to be. We were once so transparent we could walk around unclothed with total abandon. There was complete trust—no head games. We really, really knew how to love each other.
Then some little devil sold us a lie that we could do this on our own, be our own god, master the art of relationship without the instruction of the ultimate Artist. And we've been frantically hiding behind fig leaves ever since.
Now it's all about covering—not others, as is proper, but ourselves. Protecting the great Me, wearing masks, building walls for the preservation of the vast empire of Self.
It was better in the garden of Others, being ruled by the One who turned our faces upward and our arms outward from the beginning. He knew that was the only way we'd be happy.
But no, we told ourselves. We know how to be others-centered on our own.
How's that working for us?
Patient, He is. He came to show us how. Allowed himself to be laid bare to reveal a heart willing to die to bring us back into proper relationship. With Him, and with each other.
Some dare follow. Some dare to be loved back.
Humans are also in relationship with each other, of course. Only it's no longer so proper, as it used to be. We were once so transparent we could walk around unclothed with total abandon. There was complete trust—no head games. We really, really knew how to love each other.
Then some little devil sold us a lie that we could do this on our own, be our own god, master the art of relationship without the instruction of the ultimate Artist. And we've been frantically hiding behind fig leaves ever since.
Now it's all about covering—not others, as is proper, but ourselves. Protecting the great Me, wearing masks, building walls for the preservation of the vast empire of Self.
It was better in the garden of Others, being ruled by the One who turned our faces upward and our arms outward from the beginning. He knew that was the only way we'd be happy.
But no, we told ourselves. We know how to be others-centered on our own.
How's that working for us?
Patient, He is. He came to show us how. Allowed himself to be laid bare to reveal a heart willing to die to bring us back into proper relationship. With Him, and with each other.
Some dare follow. Some dare to be loved back.
A healing pain, that love that will not let me go until it has peeled back the last layer of Self so that I may find my true self. All the while, He covers me.
One day, when the last leaf has fallen, “we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is.”
The voice of the Lord makes the hinds to calve, and strips bare the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.
(Scripture references: I Jn 3:2, Psalm 29:9)
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