Human Touch, and Divine

There are joy-filled touches in human relationships. Hurts and joys felt so deeply, they threaten to undo us.

In a theater with family the other evening. My arm is around my wife, and my hand rests on the skin of her upper arm. The tenderness in that moment plowed through my soul with such force, I lost track of the movie, and time. I only wanted to feel and hold onto her and that fleeting instant.

Cradling my grand-daughter in my arms, then laying her in my lap and looking in her eyes. She begins to coo and speak with me. I speak and am quiet. She "speaks," then waits. Eventually, she wiggles her entire body trying to "say" what is in her. She smiles and I melt.

Sometimes when my children hurt or are sick, I'll hold them and tell them I'm leaking love into them. Or I'll say I'm soaking healing into them through my embrace. And I believe it.

What does love look like? I'm not always sure. But I know what it feels like. It stops time, it suspends my needs, it invokes deep passion for the better of the other.

I think of Jesus calling his Father, "Abba." The word is like our "Daddy," or "Papa." We are told the relationships within the Trinity are perfectly loving. I want to understand that. I want to believe that when I make my noises and wiggle with my fears and strive in my praying that somewhere, somehow God hears me and gets it. And then, I want to believe God begins to embrace and leak love into me...

Take peace in such hope.

A Baby in Our Hearts

Finally today, I had to step away. There's a garden just outside of the hospital where my baby's baby is. I walked to the end of its labyrinth path and found a bench in the sun...next to a gushing fountain spilling on stones. A flowering tree was just upwind, and it's fragrance, and the water sounds and the sun held me--as if I were the newborn.

Holding Elayna in our arms today we all searched for words to say. "Perfect," "beautiful," "treasure," were a few of the choices. But really there were no words. In our pictures none of us are speaking. We are embracing her in our arms--yet holding her closer than our embrace can accomplish. Ah, we hold her in our hearts.

God who speaks his love to us seems to have given-up on words long ago...Love embraces us, achingly pouring wonder into our souls. Singing birds, a smiling child, a splashing fountain, the warm sun, a dancing breeze or a fragrant blossom. You are loved, and there are simply no words!

Grace and peace to you.