Protected and Loved

As I continue to be present to what God brings forth on my journey towards wholeness, I occasionally find myself in vulnerable, rather disorientating places and yet will need to continue on with day to day life. This can be a difficult combination as often, when I feel this way, I retreat within myself which makes “functioning” a challenge.

Today God has given me a new image to hold in those places. I saw an eagle, fiercly standing over and guarding her chicks. The eaglets are completely vulnurable. They could easily be a tasty snack to many animals or they could even fall out of the nest as they are still orientating themeselves to their new world. The mothers eyes are strong, her senses keen.  She will protect her baby at all cost. 

I am aware that often, I think of God's protection more as a gentle awareness rather than with the fierce intensity of a mother guarding her young.  As a mother, I know how I would feel if one of my children were in danger.  Why then should I expect any less from the God of the universe? In scripture Jesus describes himself saying, "I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." John 10:11  This is not an image of a passive love but of a powerful love that is fully present, fully engaged and fully committed.  This is the love God has for us.

The Blood of Christ

As I continue to sit with the image of the sinful woman from the gospel of Luke I have found myself coming face to face with the sin in my own life. Sin that has been thrust upon me, sin that has come out of my own woundedness and my sin in choosing to keep all of it from the one True Healer. As I step into this awareness, I see myself draped in a filthy, beaten and torn shawl of shame. For years, I have allowed this shawl to cover me, to be my hiding place. Now, however as I am present to this piece of my journey, as God has prepared me to be, I am beginning to see new movement. I hear Christ beckoning me to the cross even as my shawl of shame is draped over my head, my eyes gazing down. As I approach the cross, I fall to my knees. Lifting my hands to wrap my fingers around the base of the cross that my Savior is hanging from, I cling to the hope that is there. The blood from His wounds drips down His beaten body and off His feet, falling on my covered head. As this drop of blood touches my shawl of shame, by the power, love and grace of Christ alone, it begins to dispel the filth and the shame, replacing it with a dazzling white, clean and pure. This white slowly bleeds into the rest of my covering as God's transforming truth penetrates and conquers the sin and lies that I have lived out of for so long.

When God gives me a gift such as this image, I am reminded of the power of scripture and prayer.  As I am willing to be still and allow the Holy Spirit to communicate God's truth through TheWord and through annointed imagery, it is then that His truth can become mine.  For a battle that has run as deep and as long as this one has, it will take time for the truth to fully encomposs my life.  I will take this image now and continue to meditate on it, experience it, even draw a picture of it to soak it in to my very being as I open myself to God's transforming work.  It is truly His work, I have only to be present and willing.  What a gift!