Earthling

Dearly Beloved,


Grace and Peace to you.




Go out upon the earth.
Walk among trees.
Lay your hand on their bark,
notice the kinship of skin, of bone
of wrinkle, spot and bug.
Ignore your clothing, let it fall
away from your mind,
rubbish blowing in the woods.
Really, you're a critter,
one of those with whom this world teems,
a muscle of this flesh,
an organ of this creature,
with whom you share the long knowing
of gravity, the flow of blood
from mountain springs
through your clay channels to the sea,
the sun's alchemy of heat to light,
and leaves' of light to food,
and yours of food to heat.
The priest of your body's weight,
the trembling of your hands,
your faithful beating heart and breath,
pronounces your belonging,
and blesses all root and leaf and flesh
that is your life,
the wind and lung's dark sex,
the unknown wisdom hid behind
the closed eye of your body,
your cell's unceasing praise.
All garments, buildings,
pavements and devices are a ruse
to separate your flesh from flesh.
We humans are of humus, raised;
your atoms, all, are of this dirt,
once spirit-blown and then
a thousand times,
and will return and rot and boil and bloom
a thousand more.
Oh, fragile, living tissue, sing with joy!—
for you are of this heaven,
sacred soil ensouled,
no passing thought, but flesh,
created flesh, and blessed to be
an earthling.





Happy Earth Day.





Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve



_______________________________

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

You are light

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
— 2 Corinthians 3.18


Before the beginning was God. Then later, as far back toward the beginning as we can imagine, which is about 13.5 billion years ago, God said, “Let there be light,” and the universe began in a single speck of pure Word. Then God separated the light from the darkness and for a time all of Creation wavered between matter and pure energy. The Big Bang expanded into a universe of hydrogen and helium, deuterium and lithium, which clumped in globs here and there and made stars, where matter and energy kept becoming each other. And in those stars the elements burned together, drawn by their attraction to each other, and danced with the ferocity of God, and created new elements: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, iron, magnesium. And then in an exuberant supernova explosion, the stars sowed those seeds across the universe, and God said, “Grow!” And over the next thirteen and a half billion years those atoms that were made in the heart of stars made their journey through space and time, having many adventures, until certain ones of them came together and became you, your body.

You are made of stars. Which are made of the light of God, God's pure energy, God's love. The molecules in your body were gathered up from the dust of the earth, which was sculpted from light, the light of stars, the heart of stars, the burning of the light of God. What you see in the mirror is the Big Bang in slow motion. You are the light of God walking around in a spark that has cooled and calmed and become matter and is still and small enough for us to see. But you are really a star, the pure energy of God.

Sometimes it shows. Especially when you return to your Source, and be who you are created to be. The light seeps out in your smile, your kind words, your attention to beauty. It radiates in your courage to love people. Like the primordial elements, attracted to each other, it glows when you honor the light in others. It burns, inextinguishable, in your courage to prevail in the face of struggle—for that light in you has already endured much and come a long way, and will not fail. As the stars burn brilliantly all day long and we do not see them, the light of God shines within you, veiled and unnoticed, but present, and fierce, and beautiful. We are embarrassed about it at times, but it is the beauty of Creation, and the presence of God. Trust it. Give thanks. And let it shine.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

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