Saturday, March 15, 2008

Dear God,

I awakened in the night listening to myself praying to you, words of praise and glory, words of acclamation. I remember thinking how beautiful the words were, how I wanted to write them down. Then I fell back to sleep.

This morning as I opened my eyes I remembered the encounter but not the words. It was then I realized that there are some cherished words that never make their way to the paper. They are not intended to. They are for you and you alone.

An intimate relationship with you means a coupling of spirit, a unique bonding of divine and human. It is the oneness that Jesus must have talked about when he said the Father and I are one. It is a coming together like no other. Two truly are one.

Standing apart from the experience, looking at it through the magnifying glass, I can't begin to imagine the full dynamic at work. How it is that one can completely bond oneself to God in a teeny moment in history. There is at that one perhaps split second that nothing stands between the two. There is an intimacy like no other. Two hearts beating as one. Eyes for the other only. An agape love in motion.

But there is a danger. The human can think that they are equals bonding together. One can walk away feeling superior; yet a human cannot be equal to you. We come to you. It is you who seals the two together. We catch a glimpse of the awesome beauty of God, of your grace-filled love. We feel beloved. At that moment nothing else matters. Meeting our Maker, we understand better our clay vessel. Hand shaped, in part, we know our value to you; more importantly, we are enthralled with the greatest value in all the world, the touch of the Master.

I can't begin to explain it, describe it, or define it. It is simply a uniting of spirits, beautiful untainted spirits.

What more can one say?

I know why
in the old days
your people
could not look upon you
and live.
They could not speak
your name.
They understood
the majesty
of Yahweh.
They knew their place
in the divine scheme.
They knew
your great power.
They bowed down
in awe and humility.
But today
we use your name
so casually,
as if to diminish you down
to nothing more
than a curse word.
There is no beauty
in the curse.
And there is no power,
no wonder
no reverence.
Yet,
willing hearts
are still able
to find you,
to discover
that you love us,
still,
even when
we are unlovable.
Such a union
in the night
bespeaks
the wondrous nature
of God.

I shall always love you, Andrea