When it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week,
and the doors of the house where the disciples had met
were locked for fear of the people,
Jesus came and stood among them.
—John 20.19
Jesus, Startling One,
my heart is locked against other people
but it is you I shut out.
What am I afraid of?
That you might love me,
love us all equally?
The walls that keep out the danger
also keep me in.
A different kind of tomb.
The doors of my compassion
are locked in fear
and yet you come in.
Even inside the walls,
within my fear,
you are with me.
Clenched doors do not protect me.
It’s my own flesh on the other side.
The Body is real; the wall is imaginary.
Your x-ray love comes through my walls,
joins me with the rest of me,
makes me whole.
Your pierced hands pierce
these doors, roll away the stone,
and set me free.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net