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

           “Feed my sheep.”
                           —John 21.17

Loving One,
may all that I do today
nourish your beloved lambs.
May all that I say
feed souls hungry for grace.
May all I do
tend your beloved
and show the way to green pastures.
All that I meet are, like me,
thirsting for love.
Give me grace to feed your sheep.

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

           Jesus said,
           “Do you love me?”
                           —John 21.15

The salmon of your heart
swim upstream to him.
The roots of your great inward oak
stretch down into him, reaching.
Ideas of him float by, labels, bits of paper,
sticks on the river. Let them go.
He is the river. You are the sea.
Or you are the river, falling always toward him.
Let the great deep gushing within you
come to him, pour into him.
Leave everything else, even beautiful,
on the shore.
Let your love join his love.
Look into his eyes that you can’t see.
Later you will dance, you will labor.
For this moment, let it all be.
Just love. That is all.

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

          Jesus came and took the bread
          and gave it to them,
          and did the same with the fish.
                           —John 21.13

The bread we share is not just the Last Supper;
it’s also the First Breakfast.
Also the Great Lunch (for 5000).

The bread we break is the Risen One,
morning, noon and night,
awakening us, strengthening us,
giving himself to us.

On the beach he might have said,
“This is my body, risen in you.”
At Emmaus he could have said,
“This is my body, transformed in you.”
Among the 5000,
“This is my body, multiplied among you.”

Christ breaks the fast of God’s presence.
Everything you eat is breakfast.
Everything you drink is Christ.
It’s a new day.

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

            Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach;
           but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
                           —John 21.4


Mary thought he was the gardener.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus
thought he was a newcomer.
Why didn’t they recognize him?
Because he’d been changed.

Resurrection isn’t “coming back to life;”
it’s going on to a new life. It’s transformation.
When Jesus rose, Mary reported it to the disciples.
They didn’t believe it.
They were still in an upper room, behind locked doors.
They had heard about resurrection,
but it hadn’t changed them yet.

Too often I live as if
resurrection has not actually happened.
I am still afraid, still doubting.
Still ready to go back to fishing with Peter,
back to the old life.

I don’t want to be changed. I say I do, but
there is still much I hang onto.
To be raised is to let go of everything,
everything I want to cling to, even fear,
and only love.
Am I willing?
Willing to cast my net in a different way?

Risen Jesus, draw me up out of this life
into a new one.

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