The doors were locked.
Jesus came and stood among them
and said, “Peace be with you….
As God has sent me, so I send you.”
When he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
—John 20.19-22
What you have lost is replaced
by the weight of sorrow.
It sits in you like a boulder.
The terror of the regime’s violence
has left its claws in you,
the fear you can be taken,
the clarity of what it can cost
to proclaim what he proclaimed.
Of course your doors are locked.
You don’t want to talk about it,
except when it’s all you can talk about.
But suddenly here he is.
God’s astounding “And yet.”
All he is—his love, his tenderness,
his mercy, his very being—unkilled
by the State, by fear, even by death.
His “Peace” is no mere greeting:
it is the healing of your grief,
the forgiveness of your guilt,
the breath of your salvation.
He breathes himself into you,
his deep peace even in the face of evil,
the power of love, the courage and energy
that sends you out into a hurting world
like wind nothing can stop,
to fearlessly embody the resurrection
that so frightens those in power.
You are embraced. You are transformed.
You are inhabited. You are sent.
Now every breath you take
is his.
______________
Weather Report
Windy,
blowing from within,
rising throughout the day,
Expect even those weighed down
to be carried away.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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