As our community returns to a weekly rhythm of listening and prayer, we acknowledge again that this space is for your own spacious and sacred interaction with the Lord through listening, prayer, and the Scriptures. What quickens within each of us as we listen to the text is unique and specific to us. What we hear is an invitation into an interaction with the Triune God. We get to approach and interact with the Divine using the names that foster relationship, trust, and intimacy. We are delighted to “listen in” together with you.
As you know, what stirs in our prayer is tender and distinctive to our lives and circumstance. Today, I (Kim) want to share what came in my prayer as we gathered on Wednesday. I want to caution you that my prayer encompasses the experience of miscarriage and infant loss. Because grief and loss are so central to our lives, I share this to bring this topic out of the shadows.
Please pause and notice if you want to continue reading…
I experienced the miscarriage of my first baby in January of 1995. As a young mother, I was surprised by the vast number of older women who shared their stories of infant loss with me. I had no idea that so many women grieved silently for the one waiting to be born and gone too soon.
If this is your experience too, go gently with you and all the feelings that rise up in you.
Perhaps today is not the day to open the gates to the feelings which might still be there.
Perhaps you want to inwardly acknowledge that it still hurts and ask for the grace to move into your day.
Maybe you feel resourced to bring your own feelings into your prayer allowing them to be freshly symbolized and be welcomed, seen, known, and shared with Christ.
Please know that if you want a gentle companion to bear witness to your loss and grief, our spiritual directors are here to listen and bear witness to your sorrow, just as it is.
You too are precious and honored.
Precious and honored
The one missing
in my arms
My hands and forearms hang limp
as I notice the empty, hollow
cavern in my womb
Gone before you fully arrived
here beside me
All I have are the few
short weeks, I carried you within
– the joy and delight of those fleeting days –
Abba,
What might it mean for
you to bring this one back from afar?
Is it this?
this moment of remembrance?
I wait for something more.
I honor this precious one
I barely knew.
Amen.
Isaiah 43:1-7 NIV
But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention you as you listened to or slowly read the text? Quietly reflect on this with Jesus.
Notice any felt sense that seems to emerge as you linger with this passage. It might come as a bodily feeling, emotion, metaphor, picture, gesture or sound. See if you can describe it and simply be with it with patient curiosity. Be open to whatever more might emerge.
Perhaps you might want to draw, color or journal your conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some quiet moments with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.
