The Beloved danced around the light
       twirled her galaxy skirts

dreamed of love
       and made room in herself for another

poured her delight into the palm of her hand
      fashioned it with beauty

and set it dancing with joy
      yes, you

shining in the dark of her eyes
      river into the world

flowing with all the others
     all one dance one beauty one delight

Tell me, child,
      what will you do with all that love in you?

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

           Love one another as I have loved you.
                           —John 13.34


Love is not a feeling
but an act,
a movement of the heart from here to there,
of gratitude and reverence for someone,
a commitment to their well-being,
to share space with them
in the circle of being,
to being co-members in this Body of life.
It is a giving-and-receiving of being.

Love is not a wanting,
you for myself,
(though that’s what we too easily call love),
not for my sake at all,
but, yes, a yearning, unfinished,
like gravity,
for mutual wholeness.

It’s this pull
that holds the world together,
that alone will save us
from our splintered wanderings,
our solitary confinement,
our lonely rage.

To yearn for one another
as we have been yearned for
is the blessing that redeems us,
the settling that answers our gravity’s desire.

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

           “I give you a new commandment,
           that you love one another
           just as I have loved you.”
                           —John 13.34


Beloved,
may your love flow through me,
your heart beat in mine,
your Spirit breathe in me,
that I may love as you have loved me:
entering my life with gentleness,
inviting me into your grace,
giving me a place of belonging in this amazing world,
forgiving me entirely, healing me,
calling forth the divine in me,
finding delight in me,
laying down your life for me.
May I love as you have loved me
and live gently, love deeply,
forgive freely, give generously,
bless boldly, and offer myself humbly,
that, by your grace,
you will live fully in me.
Amen.

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

God looks with such love
that God can light a candle
by gazing upon it.

This, this gaze of love,
is how God created you.
Prayer is holding still, to let God see you.

You, child of God,
can look at this world
in just that way.

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

           You prepare a table before me
           in the presence of my enemies.
                           —Psalm 23.5

This is a promise of safety:
in biblical times hospitality was so honored
that a host was expected to protect you
even from murderous enemies.

But it’s also an invitation to reconciliation.
When the Beloved prepares the table
your enemies aren’t just onlookers. They’re invited.

There is only one table.
Jesus sets the Passover table and seats Judas
right beside him, in the place of honor.

The Beloved sits beside you,
your enemy across from you.
(The Beloved sits beside them, too.)

And you both feast on the same grace,
the same cup overflowing,
the same goodness and mercy.

You will not get up from the Beloved’s table
until you are reconciled.
Until then you both are still at the table.

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

            “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

            “When you grow old,
           you will stretch out your hands,
           and someone else will fasten a belt around you
           and take you where you do not wish to go.”
                           —John 21.18

I am becoming free of youth’s illusion—
dragged about by my desires, calling it “freedom.”
More mature now, I outlast those hungers,
waiting patiently
for deeper longings to well up from God
and lead me where I hadn’t thought of going,
hadn’t even seen.

The arctic tern doesn’t choose
to fly from the Netherlands to Antarctica,
or insist on the way.
She allows herself to be led
by a deeper wisdom
that knows more than she.

Don’t worry, fearful child.
The belt is love.

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