A voice came from heaven,
“You are my Child, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
—Luke 3.22
You are baptized
into Belovedness,
bathed in divine delight.
It washes away all else,
your other names, other selves,
all that is not your holiness.
Your work is no more than this,
to trust your Belovedness,
to return to it, to receive it.
All evil springs
from the distrust
that we are the Beloved.
Immersed in this grace,
you breathe in the world,
you breathe out heaven.
Baptized into the Body of Christ,
you are the flesh of God’s love,
living as if on fire.
The whole world sings in you.
You belong to us all.
A great bird rises up,
calling for its mate,
singing with beauty,
crying out in joy.
—January 9, 2019