Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
— Isaiah 64.1
Our longings pulse blood through us.
They are babies in us we don’t want to have.
Fearing them full grown,
we knot them down, deep and small.
But fear cannot kill them. Still we yearn.
Longings rise up through us from the earth.
Our hearts press against our chests.
We lean toward the light.
Advent is a time to enter the dark
where your fear is afraid to go.
Ask your soul: what do you long for?
Be still and wait for the answer.
Take much time, and listen gently.
Your soul will only whisper.
Your desires tangle down through the dark
like roots into the heart of God.
Your deep longings are the voice of the Beloved
longing for the New Creation.
It is desire that drew stars out of darkness,
green out of soil, life out of the grave.
Deepen your desire. Nourish your longing.
Let the One yearn within you.
Dare, with the dignity and power of God, to beg.
Take courage to want, in greatest measure.
Your longing is too large to be checked off a list.
Let your life be a holy plea.
Let what still comes unfold within you.
Creation’s deepest desire in you
is the bud already in the wintry branch,
drawing this world into the next.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net