Friday August 21, 2015

Psalm 84:1-2

How glorious is your dwelling place. O Loving Creator of the universe! My soul aches for the abode of the Beloved; All that is in me sings for joy to the living Heart of Love! (Paraphrase, Nan C. Merrill)

The street where you live

You never know where you will find it, or it will find you.

Great Love surprises. You never know when it will wash over you and fill you—warm with the knowledge that that dwelling place of God is everywhere.

We dwell within you, Holy One, within the compass of Great Love. All that is dwells within you. Every place is holy for every place is held inside the Great Love you are. And every place can shine and fill the heart with beauty and joy.

No one else might have seen a thing, but I felt and knew you among the towering condos along Lake Shore Drive as I stepped from greening parkland onto walks bordered by plants and flowers, excited children laughing at the joy of being under the brilliant blue of a late summer sky.

I knew Great Love for all I saw, for the towering buildings, the children and the greening of the city, for every soul who walked the streets, for all who live high above in the surrounding towers and those who labor behind the scenes to make it all work so people may live.

All of it. For a shining moment nothing escaped the embrace of my heart. I felt it all connected, everything needing everything else and everything inside a Great Love, held and treasured by the Great Love that embraces all … and that lives mysteriously in me.

My soul sang with the joy of knowing … what no book or teacher can convey. I knew You, even as I know you now as fingers rattle these keys and carry me into awareness of Great Love that shined through everything I saw on one summer’s day.

The abode of God is everywhere … and everything is in you, Holy One.

Why and how do I see and know this mystery in this one time and place but miss it in so many others? Why do whole days go by without clear vision and soul-filling awareness of the Great Love you are?

I cannot answer. Perhaps some places are thin to the eyes of my heart, allowing the Light and Love you are to shine through the veil of creation that I might see and know.

Or perhaps the experience of love anywhere in our lives … opens our eyes to the Great Love who is everywhere.

However awareness comes, Great Love, Thank you.

Thank you for summer days that enlighten my heart and fill me. Thank you for calling me beloved … on a city street where the belovedness of all was clear as a summer sky.

Pr. David L. Miller