A couple of inches of fallen snow lies across the surface of a tree stump. At its exposed margin this silent gift is already retreating back from the imperceptibly warmer outer edge of the wood. Crystal by crystal this first tiny thaw is transforming the ice into free flowing water, which in turn is seeping slowly into surface of the stump. When the thaw proper sets in warmth will return the gift invisibly as vapour to the air from which it came. When the conditions are just right, it will grace the landscape as snowy gift again.
Love comes to our life as gift, falling. We are enveloped. It transforms our seeing and self-understanding. It seeps into us below the surface. And as we warm up it naturally thaws and melts and we release it beyond ourselves freely as gift, the vapour of promise, to fall where it is needed in gentle flakes of intricate beauty.
Falling, thawing and melting is the cycle of generosity and grace at the heart of the human spirit.
I love this post and picture. Have taken much pleasure in enjoying watching the snow melt over here at Cliff and reflecting on the majesty of God's creation. Great work Dave
ReplyDeleteReally glad you like it Ali :-)
ReplyDelete...and yet there are times when we stubbornly remain frozen...
ReplyDeletei may sound jaded and cynical...i'm speaking from my own experience -- i never knew the love you've just written about. i was a self-centered kind of "lover" -- ...so i never experienced that kind of love. It just seems to me that human nature is NOT capable of that kind of beauty in that kind of love you described --
ReplyDeleteUNTIL the love of JESUS indwells and infills the person. i can understand the love you described ONLY because JESUS lives in me today. Before, i wouldn't have known what in the world you were talking about!
You're talking about the amazing grace of GOD, right?
Yes we do Sally, and sadly endure the consequences too. And rln! I never think of you as jaded or cynical, just honest about how things are for you :-). Grace is indeed a good word to use of the sort of love I wrote about. I would not want to narrow down the meaning however, rather let the 'poetry' speak in whatever way is helpful to those who read it.
ReplyDelete