named and claimed

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I have always found the beginning of Jesus’s ministry

Enlightening

 

I love, love, love how he is affirmed by Sacred

how the heavens part

and a voice proclaims

‘This is my child’

 

how the Sacred external

and the Sacred internal dance and Jesus understands

unmistakably

that he is loved

and that he is enough

 

but then he gets led into temptation

he is tempted not to trust the voice of love

tempted not to trust himself

tempted to grab power and misuse it

 

named and claimed by Love

he is tempted to depart from love and move to

something not loving

 

to move from sacrifice and service

to self-promotion and domination

 

I sometimes wonder how many times that story played out

in his lifetime

how many times this beloved child

was tempted to distrust his identity

his relationship to Love

and seek to affirm himself through the use of power

on others, rather than for others?

 

no wonder he often wandered off

needing to remember

needing to hear that inner voice

“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”

 

is not Jesus’s story our story?

are we too not named and claimed?

“This is my child

my child

and I am pleased”

 

in us too does the Sacred not dance?

are we too not sent out

to love the world?

 

and do other voices not whisper in our ears

seeking to pull us away from the path of love?

 

the ability of things dark and malignant

to worm their way into our lives

and make us doubt our identity as Sacred children

is profound

 

but so too is the power of love

that Love which comes down and

stays

rooted in our hearts

 

whispering

over and over and over again

“child of God

child of God

 

with you, I am well pleased!

go

and do the work of Love”