Every day I face not only the brokenness of those I love, but my own. Every day I face a broken world. Today I cannot help but reflect on what it means that love always wins. So I write. What comes into my head through my heart is that in the midst of all the world throws at us, only love transforms us into the people we are created to be. I sometimes wonder why I keep broken figures or furniture, until I realize the warmth and beauty each item holds by the memory attached, a memory of love.
Recently I have been talking a lot about a vision for our future to those I have been called to serve. The conversation also includes personal visions. This has led me to wonder about my own vision of the future God is calling me into and I see one from my past transformed. It has to do with how passionately I believe love always wins. I have always wanted my home to be a place of peace. When people come they come and can rest their souls. When they enter my home they know they are loved unconditionally. I have recently come to understand that this is part of a larger vision God has for me. My vision is of a place of healing. A place where the broken can come and be healed. A place where the broken learn of their beauty, their beauty within their brokenness. It is a vision of a place where we learn the importance of a touch, the warmth of a hug. We begin to see the value in all that God created. We see the wonder in those so broken that we can love even the unlovable. We learn to value not what we own but what we can share.
Somehow we have become so broken we cannot help but see the world as a place filled with evil. We seek out distractions to avoid looking at the evil and not recognize the evil in the distractions. Little things become important and important things impossible. It is this precarious balance on a high wire without a pole or safety net. We keep walking tilting and struggling with one foot in front of the other hoping that one day we will reach the other end only to find when we get there it is a small place to rest before we chose to step out onto the next wire. If we get the right job, buy the latest thing, happiness will come.
We get so caught up, we almost miss it. Love. If we turn into a moment and see what truly matters, we find love. There is no need to balance anything when we discover how love holds us above the raging waters. There is this story about Jesus and Peter and walking on water. When Peter was focused on what truly matters, focused on Jesus, focused on love, he was able to walk on water. When Peter became distracted he lost his balance, his buoyancy and began to sink. Jesus did not let him sink. Love came through and lifted Peter up. It happens again and again and again in the scriptures that the focus of our attention is shifted to worldly concerns and worldly estimates of power and honor and glory. Each time we shift our focus away from God, away from love, more brokenness occurs. There is war. There is intrigue. There is death. Then in the midst of the brokenness, there is forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, love and the broken vessel becomes an instrument of love and beauty whose purpose is to serve God and share the love God has for us.
Yet it is eons since creation and we continue to lose focus. So what about this vision of mine of a place of healing. I just chuckled because it is not my vision, but God's vision placed within me. A long time ago it seems I spoke of the pebble thrown into a still pond and the ripples across the water from its entry. I even spoke of the landscape at the bottom forever changed by the addition of the pebble. That image today still holds power for me. I still believe that the world can be transformed through our willingness to be servants of God who only allow joy, allow love, allow God to rule in our hearts. It is not doing big things. It is being, truly being who God created us to be, embracing our brokenness and opening our lives to God for healing through the healers God sends into our lives. This means spaces, places, communities whose purpose is to love, to heal those who come, who sojourn to our doors. It is understanding the brokenness within each and bringing what gifts and graces we have to provide the time and space for healing to occur. It is not easy work. There is no guarantee that those who come truly wish to be healed. What is important is that the space is created for a transformative encounter between the broken and God.
My vision is of a healing place. God continues to take that vision and work it within me. I see a great kitchen and smell exotic spices as food is prepared with loving hands and a hearty laugh. I hear laughter throughout. There is this great stone fireplace with comfortable overstuffed chairs. People are curled up in the chairs holding cups with steam rising from the rims. Cats are rubbing up against the legs of those in the chairs, purring their contentment. The trees seen through the windows are this deep emerald green. Perched on the trees are birds chattering their news one to another. If we look through the dark brown trunks of the trees we see the rich blues from the water's surface. It is a temporary home of healing. It is one house within a village. Children's voices calling out to one another as they play in the warmth of the sunshine. The air is crisp and slightly cool to each breath I take. Dogs are barking with excitement. In the distance the peel of the bells from the church steeple reminds me of the hour, of my place within this community and I know the peace that Christ gives within my heart.
Love always wins. The world will be transformed by love and only love. It begins with us. It is our choice to allow joy, allow love, allow God to be our guide, our focus, our Lord.
One of Many
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