Monday, February 26, 2007

Today’s reading

1 John 2:5-6

“[B]ut whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked” (1 John 2:5-6).

Prayer

My soul is not simple, pure and perfect. I am complex, divided and in pain. This day I thank you for the pain, for it is purest evidence of your presence, your love within this messy soul so far from the perfection of love you intend.

Walk as you walked. I see your walk, my Jesus: blessing children, healing human brokenness with a word and touch, showering compassion on hungry crowds who seek you for much more than bread, suffering rejection for the sake of a world you so completely and irrationally love. A parade of exquisite images runs through my mind. Each brings tears, for you shimmer with an eternal beauty for which my heart has ached since I was small and had no words to speak my hidden hunger.

I have known your walk in my own flesh. There are moments when you, O Blessed Beauty, glisten in words of blessing and healing bubbling from depths of soul where you and I are not two but one. Only then, being perfected in love, is my heart pure, my soul filled with the joy of simplicity, which filled your own soul, my brother. Until then, we are both in pain.

For your joy, my Jesus, is to walk your walk with my feet, my arms and legs, bringing in me the perfection of your love. Grant today, that I may dwell in awareness of your unspeakable love for me that I may learn to walk, as if for the first time. Amen.

--Pastor David L. Miller