Month: May 2022

            “I give them eternal life,
           and they will never perish.
           No one will snatch them out of my hand.“
                           —John 10.28

Eternal life isn’t extended warranty,
it’s not just prolonged survival;
it’s God’s life in you that never ends
even if you do,
it’s your being part of the Body of Christ
which is eternal, even if your body isn’t.
It’s not about you,
not about getting to be an individual forever.
It’s about sharing in God’s love,
which will never perish.
When we live that love,
even though we die, yet shall we live.
In that love nothing,
nothing
can snatch us out of the Beloved’s hands.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

            God is my shepherd;
            I am not in want…
                           —Psalm 23.1

Savor the still pastures, the deep, green waters,
trust and remember them;
stay faithful to the harmonious path
and the One who leads you on it,
stay with it,
for it leads directly
to the valley of the shadow of death,
the seed buried, the life laid down,
the heart’s Golgotha,
the cup poured out, overflowing
with goodness and mercy
all the days of your life.
The meadow, the valley, the table:
if you hear the voice beneath the silence
this is where it leads you,
all the days of your life.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

            My sheep hear my voice.
            I know them, and they follow me.
                           —John 10.7

Sitting by the pond
it sounds like I don’t hear anything but birds and breeze.
And the little brook. Like kids whispering.
The water flows into the pond,
and on into the sea.
What I hear flows through me,
water in the pond, flowing through my blood,
I hear it inside me.
It knows me.
I hear the ocean answering.
I know this little stream, the word of God, like blood.
I hear it within. I follow it,
as water rippling through rocks,
as love rivering through the world,
following the voice of the earth,
not an effort but a flowing.
This flow from cloud to spring to river to sea to cloud again
is eternal,
the right path on which the shepherd leads me.
This is the still water
that is also the spring of living water gushing up to eternal life.
In stillness I hear it gushing,
And I follow the voice of the flowing
and enter into the deep water.
And it bears me into the ocean of grace.
I hear birds, and the mouth of the breeze.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

A seed floats on the wind.
Settling, it sinks in, snuggles into the earth
and begins to grow.

The bird flies to the branch.
Landing, it begins to sing.

God, may I be a safe place
where goodness may take root,
a beautiful song unfold,
another person,
maybe even a stranger,
become free.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net