Eclipses and the Ferocity of Love
An eclipse just passed. If you were looking, the sun was almost completely hidden behind the moon. Anyone paying attention (with special glasses that is!) could notice the phenomenon: the sun appeared to be disappearing, in spite of the light it still generated.
We now know the cause and the effect. Science and physics and astronomy all combine to explain this remarkable occurrence. And yet: we still stand in awe at the complexity, the mystery, the wonder of it all. Explain it all you want. But still, it feels like a magic moment, especially if you had friends or family sending photos of areas within the totality, darkness and the crown of light around the moon.
Coming the week after Easter, maybe there’s a fit here. Mystery, wonder, the power of love that can be explained in a sense, yet still. We have something words can’t quite do justice to.
It reminds me of Mary Olivier's poem of the Loaves and Fishes in her work "Logos:"
Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and felt the ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Perhaps the continued miracle that Jesus works is that fierce love, that ferocity of love which expands wine, explodes fish into many, and convinces us that ministry to the world is still a most beautiful gift. Along with the mysteries of our natural world, with the moon and the sun and the sky, may you feel love's true ferocity this week and beyond.
Love,
David
David Jordan
Senior Pastor