The moment of enfolding

‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks’  (Luke 12:35-36)

Joy is opening a door to that face you most want to see, the face whose smile is your smile, whose arms eagerly await the moment of enfolding you in an embrace that tells you everything your heart needs to know.

The One who is Love comes; every morning he comes and every evening he keeps silent watch over you, the beloved, whom he longs to wake to another day that you might know what is in his heart … for you.

Open the door. Open your heart. Open the protected portal of your being where you bury your wounds and hide in fear.

Pour out every need. Name every last way you have failed to live for others and betrayed your own soul because you were selfish or afraid. Release every self-judgement and the damning ways others named you that still sting.

The only one who knows you well enough to name you is this One, this blessed face who waits for you to open your deepest heart to the Love he is.

So open the door. Joy awaits you. The One who knows and loves you through and through is there, always, eager for the moment of enfolding.

He stands at the door, knocking, his great divine heart in his throat, wanting to love you with the love you have always wanted.

Open the door, a smile of holy welcome awaits you.

Pr. David L. Miller

This is life

And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ (Luke 12:15)

In the silence of my basement room, still I see the red-golden leaves, tinged brown on every edge, of the little tree on the southwest corner of the lot—and am moved.

Life is seeing, really seeing this tree in this one moment of eternity—its beauty unlike any tree that ever was or ever will be—on this October day when wind and rain threaten to rip away leaves it is not quite ready to surrender.

Hold on, little tree. Let me savor you just a little longer. True, you will be beautiful when the snows come to adorn your branches. But, for now, you witness to the Love who speaks to me in odd moments when, for reasons unknown, my soul opens to what is right in front of me.

And I know, yes, I know it is you. It is you whose smile shines from my little tree, you who are Creator of my beating heart that in more recent years has learned to love beyond what I had thought possible.

And today, I love you more … for this little tree, branches dancing in gusty-gray winds as it hangs onto the beauty it is, little knowing another beauty will surely come.

But I do. I know. The Love you most assuredly are, Holy One, will seek and delight my heart far beyond this October day, touching me on colder mornings until, ah, the wonder of another Spring I hope to see.

This, knowing you this way, dearest Friend, is life.

My joyful tears praise you in every season, knowing that little tree is my life.

Pr. David L. Miller