This week, I am pondering in my heart and prayer what it is like for each of us to hear ourselves being called “Beloved”. This poem emerged from my prayer.
Hearing Beloved
In vulnerability
humble places
of destruction,
decay,
brokenness,
and shame
the heavens are open to us –
and if we are listening,
and sometimes we need others alongside us
to linger in the silence,
we hear
‘you are my beloved,
I am so pleased with you’.
Soak, steep, swim
in the baptismal waters of this blessing.
It is meant
for you
for me
for us.
Listen for it.
Again and again and again
until on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Matthew 3:13-16 NTL
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
For Prayer and Reflection:
Was there a word or phrase or picture which caught your attention as you listened to the text? Savor and linger with the word(s) or picture that came. Invite it to sink into your heart.
After some lingering with what caught your attention, bring your curiosity to what you notice. What wonderings, questions or longings arise in your heart? Journal about them or make room for their artistic expression.
How do you sense the Lord responding to you through the text?
Rest in God. Allow God’s love to meet you as you are and where you are.
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