Glimpses of God - Day Thirty-Five

On the weekend, I went walking to visit the daffodils by Dallas Road below the slope of Beacon Hill Park. The bright sunlight, breeze and incandescent flowers refreshed my senses.  As I walked and breathed deeply, the warmth of the sun and the solidity of ground brought me comfort and lifted my heart. Voluptuous deep grey clouds enhanced the gilt of golds and yellows and greens.

A sign said ‘please keep to the trails.’ Walking those trails sent me back to the paths of the countryside by my childhood home. Those were made by horses through tall eucalyptus, clover and buttercup filled meadows, and bramble trapped boulders. The tracks led to a creek along which I wandered and cherished cool shade and sounds. That land brought solace to me, a sense of freedom, and there was companionship with the horses who lived there; cold winter days were warmed leaning trustingly against my favourite as the sun embraced my face.

This morning through my balcony windows, the sky was immense with clouds of every tone framing bright blue sky.  Little birds were gathering string off the guard-rail and I was listening to a video meditation about God’s longing for us to come close. The narrator, Rev. Lisa Cole Smith asks, “Imagine the sound of a beloved voice calling to you, a voice that makes your heart jump, like a lover’s voice making you forget everything else; the mere sound of the voice lifts you up out of the mundane and gives you meaning and purpose to your very existence.” She goes on to say, “One way to read the book Song of Songs....is to imagine the relationship between God and humans as a voice of a lover calling to the beloved and longing for a response.”

I had been listening to this meditation all week and I’d struggled to imagine God as a lover. I find myself slow to trust love in human form. But this morning as I gazed at the wonder of the sky and repeated to myself “the whole earth is full of Your glory,” and felt myself breathe in and experience a sense of peace and presence, I realised that is how the ‘Lover’ calls to me- through creation. And I felt joy as I imagined the origin of that Love being glad of my response. 

If you would like to listen to this short, beautiful meditation it can be found here

Song of Solomon 2: 10-13

My lover said to me,
    “Rise up, my darling!
    Come away with me, my fair one!
 Look, the winter is past,
    and the rains are over and gone.
 The flowers are springing up,
    the season of singing birds has come,
    and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.
 The fig trees are forming young fruit,
    and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming.
Rise up, my darling!
    Come away with me, my fair one!”