Stretch out your hands

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.


Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But 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 21.17-18


But it's not a belt,
nothing so solid and irrefutable,
more like silence,
more like a nudging, a slight vacuum,
an intent beyond our choosing,
a recognition rising slowly like fish.
We are led, allured, invited,
not yanked, by a wisp of grace,
a smell of food on a charcoal fire,
a possibility.


In silence, in the mystery, we are
taken from our lives,
—drawn up out of dark waters,
blessed by grace greater than ourselves,
—fed the bread and fish of miracles,
broken open to the our deepest hearts,
—confessing our love, and
given to the world,
—led by a belt of love.

And so we go.
We look up from our half-eaten fish,
recognize the One who has hauled us
in a net of mystery out of our disconnected lives,
and step into the new world.

So now, enter the stillness.
Stretch out your hands.
Stop trying to push yourself through life.
Wait, 'till, like a fish you are drawn up in darkness,
and led into the rising day.



Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com