The way to love someone
is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul
until you find a crack,
and then gently pour your love into that crack.
~Keith Miller

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

23 July 2014



Rise and shine is coming pretty early around here.  I like that I already have half of my 10,000 steps done for the day and a second cup of coffee is getting cold in front of me.  I like that I can spend a few minutes looking at what my buddy girl has "pinned" to our shared board ... and I like the idea, the very fact, that one can share boards.  It makes her feel nearer and that helps me with (among other comforting things) the idea of "abiding" with what or who I hold most dear, even when "near" is more difficult to realize.  There is a lyric which says, "...and bless the moments that we feel You nearer."  I am learning to amend that to find You nearer, because it seems that one has not to do but look, look as Turrell encourages us to do, look for the light one can "see" with the eyes shut.  Gosh, I hope I can visit his crater.  Isn't it fun that one goes to a hole to see ... what's up?  We seek "wholeness".

So ... today.  Time to notice that the screens on the front of the house want to be cleaned.  Mine are dusty looking, and there is a silvery little spider web tucked in behind one.  The screens are making the windows look neglected (because they are).  So ... ha, I will think about that today, but I will do nothing about it.  Today I'm supposed to start getting things ready for a little road trip back to Texas.  A visit.  Cleaning the vehicle is my top priority today.

Lately I've been researching stuff on "Sarah".  God's Sarah.  She seems pretty epic.  Surely someone has already done a really thorough project on that.  I am finding that I need help with the words.  I'm not so sure that some of the connotations weren't skewed, biased.  And ... there is all that cultural stuff which I am trying to grapple with.  For example ... some references say things like ... she and Abraham had same father different mothers ... others say he was her cousin, or just a blood relative.  Some one said she is the prototypical "second-Eve", mother to us all ... that idea along with feminine perfection.  Her name may have always had connotations of "princess", ruler ... queen, or it may have inferred "contentiousness" when it was Sarai.  I'm laughing to myself (which she also seemed to do a bit of) ... a "bossy" woman is most often seen as contentious even today (and those who come readily to mind do pop up wagging their fingers along with their tongues.  L was telling me that Pelosi said "we" should be thinking of this recent "immigration" as baby Jesus individuals ... maybe she really said Jesús ... the Jesus thing would just be manipulative, wouldn't it?)  So ... Sarah ... submissive Sarah.  In fact, she doesn't read as submissive.  In fact, Abraham is looking different then how I pictured him.  It's going to be a while before I know what I think there ... it's worth spending the time (even as I look for credible short cuts ... I'm no Hebrew scholar but it's looking like the women had more significant roles then I have accepted from the little Sunday school snippets.  My education is lacking. 


Yeah ... looking at "submission" naturally brings one to looking at slavery.  Enslaved.  Slave.  I like that the Bible actually says stuff like ... Joseph  sold into slavery, his brothers thought that would be better for them then having his blood on their hands.  It's a complex story, I'm certainly not trying to make light of it.  It plays out well for all involved.
I didn't know of Frederick Douglas.  Another gap in my education.  He was quite eloquent on the topic of slavery and the "lessening" of those involved on either side of the master/slave equation.  Slavery ... in whatever form it likes to manifest ... is corrosive.  The seminal idea of the Holy Bible is of redemption from bondage.
So ... all that is wrapped together in what I am reflecting on.  The story of redemption is told large and small, it's told continuously throughout God's word to us.

re·demp·tion
riˈdempSHən/
noun
noun: redemption; plural noun: redemptions
  1. 1.
    the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.
    "God's plans for the redemption of his world"
    synonyms:saving, freeing from sin, absolution More
    • a thing that saves someone from error or evil.
      "his marginalization from the Hollywood jungle proved to be his redemption"
  2. 2.
    the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.
    synonyms:retrievalrecovery, reclamation, repossession, return More

    • archaic
      the action of buying one's freedom.

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