Category: Reflections

            He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
           While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven,
           suddenly two people in white robes stood by them.
           They said, “People of Galilee,
           why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
                              —Acts 1.9-11

Because sometimes all you can do
is stare into the space where once there was
something you loved.
Because sometimes there’s a gap
between the last step of this journey
and the first step of the next one.
Because grief is the grain
in the pearl of believing.
Because sometimes there’s an empty place
in you that only the right kind of silence can fill.
Because we didn’t get here on our own
but now we’re afraid we might have to.
Because it’s sometimes only empty air
and a vast, insistent silence
where we can hear the voice,
the silent voice, and feel the presence,
the huge unsayable presence
of the One in whose absence
there is such nearness.
Because sometimes, God,
sometimes
you just really miss the skin.

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

           “Abba God, you are in me
           and I am in you;
           may they also be in us,
           I in them and you in me,
           that they may become completely one.”
                           —John 17.21, 23

In that song you love
that one beautiful note is a note in the song,
and when you sing it right
the whole song is in that note,
and the song is in you,
and you are in the hearer,
and the hearer is in the song,
and we are one,

circles within circles,
a fish in the ocean and the ocean in the fish,
the fire in the flame and the warmth in the light,
the mother in the child in the mother,
the blood in the flesh and the life in the blood,
the Lover and the Beloved and the Love that flows between,
the Infinite who makes room within themselves for us,
and the One who comes and brings us in,
and the room and all who are in it, who are in each other:
this is what we mean when we say “One,”
what you mean when you say “I.”

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

           He was lifted up,
           and a cloud took him out of their sight.
                           —Acts 1.9

The Ascension is not about Jesus’s body
rising above the earth,
but about Jesus expanding beyond his body.

He didn’t go up,
he went out.
Into all of us.

The disciple stand there,
almost ready to believe
(they won’t until Pentecost)

that the body is not there
but here: we are the body,
the body of the risen Christ.

Christ is not an individual but a community.
You are not an individual
but a member of that community.

When Jesus prays “May they all be one,”
it isn’t about opinions.
It’s that we’re all cells of one body.

See that way.
Act that way.
Love that way.


________________
Weather Report

Heavenly,
as warm, light air rises,
raising us all
into the realm of light.

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

           Peace I leave with you;
           my peace I give to you.
           I do not give to you as the world gives.
                           —John 14.27


I give to you a heart of serenity,
the grace to be undisturbed
even as chaos surrounds.

I give to you a heart of harmony,
that you may be forgiving,
knowing you are forgiven.

I give to you a heart of hope,
confident in the grace that moves
unseen and vast.

I give to you a heart of acceptance,
to be present with what is
even if it is not what shall be.

I give to you a heart of wholeness,
that you may know you belong
and all that is within you be healed.

I give to you a heart of gentleness,
to live graciously with all,
even those who are not at peace.

I give to you a heart of love,
that you know you are my Beloved,
and be at peace with all.

My peace I give to you,
the Peace of the Crucified and Risen One.
Peace be with you.

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

           The sick man answered him,
           “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
           when the water is stirred up;
           and while I am making my way,
           someone else steps down ahead of me.”
           Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
                           —John 5.7-8

Around the angels and the waters
Jesus skirts,
far from the pool of your will,
your ability, your resolve, your place,
the dice of who is next,
while those who know
trouble the waters of opinion.
The healer knows more of sickness
than the sick.
Never mind the clamor as the air stirs.
Beneath the crowd of noises within
he says quietly, whispers even,
like ripples of troubled waters,
what echoes so quietly, echoes
in the little portico of your heart,
beyond all desiring or deserving
and all that isn’t healed:

Stand up, take your mat, and walk.
No running by the pool.

_________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
ww.unfoldinglight.net

           Knowing he had been there a long time,
           Jesus said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
                           —John 5.6

      Perhaps it was a challenge:
Do you want to be healed,
or are you too used to it
to want to leave that life behind?
Have you grown fond of complaining,
accustomed to lying here,
unwilling to be changed?

      To which the answer may have been:
You can only obsess with what you want
for so long. After 38 years I am at peace with what is.
But, yes. I would rather be well.

      But maybe it was just an invitation,
      a way of saying, “May I?”

When I come to my prayers,
do I want to be transformed?
Do I realize I need to be healed?
Or do I think that’s Jesus’ job, to notice?
Do I know my sin makes me sick,
my fears and desires paralyze me?
How often do I ask for stuff
but forget to open myself
to being made new?

Yes, Beloved, yes.
I want to be made well.

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

It is as if an old woman in the train station
should look around and smiling slightly
reach into her bag and pull out
a kerchief tied around ancient, valuable coins,
cry “Oh dear!“
and the coins slip out of the kerchief
and fall on the floor,
seemingly multiplying as they land
in a fountain of coins,
clinking and clattering and rolling,
and rolling, some quite far.
And some people ignore the scene and walk on,
and some people stop and pocket a few coins.
But some people stoop and gather coins,
fetching them from under benches and planters,
and return them to the woman,
who blesses each one of them,
smiling, eye to eye,
and they walk away so much richer.

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

God of mercy,
our hearts are broken
for the violence that surrounds us,
the violence that is within us.
Heal our rage;
mold it like a potter
into wisdom and courage.
But to not unbreak our hearts.
Let them remain shattered
for those who grieve—
for we are all one family—
and for our own part
in a nation of violence.
Mold our sorrow
with your strong and steady hands
into wisdom and courage,
that we may speak and act
to assist in the mending of this world,
in the strength of your gentleness,
the might of your mercy,
the power of your love.

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

Sit a moment under this blossoming tree.
                        Take in its sweet fragrance.

What does it matter what you believe? There are no words.
                         You do not reason; you inhale.

A bee buzzes about your head, and you let him.
                         He is not after you, but the flowers.

Close your eyes in prayer. Let your mind buzz and hum
                         while you inhale the fragrance of God

I hope for you the confidence of the bird
who flies without doubt.

I wish for you the patience of the bird
for whom is it not a storm, but merely air.

I pray for you the joy of the bird,
who finds food.

I bless in you the wisdom of the bird
who flies thousands of miles and finds home.

I pray for you the grace of the bird,
who makes its own path.

I see in you the beauty of the bird,
how it loves this world.

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