The Soul that Speaks Poetry

 Yesterday I was tired...you know, the kind of tired where you have 20 minutes before picking up the kids and you wish you could just lie down and take a nap. Thankfully, I have a friend who lives just near school, so I went to see if I could just lie down for a quick rest. And we got to talking.

She happens to be single (and available!!) and shares her longing for a husband."I do still have this deep longing - but when I pour my heart out to God and I realize He sees me, and His love is precious to me, I tell Him, 'I still want a husband, but I want this deep connection with You more.'" She shares her journey - her ups and downs, how she moves from anger over being single, with a 4 year-old, to grieving what isn't, what is missing: the husband, the father for her child. This grief moves her to union with the Heavenly Father Who sees her. Who knows what is missing. And Who can hear the anger, the hurt, the longing and hold it all - Whose Son holds it all in outstretched, nail-pierced hands. Through the incarnation it is clear we have a God Who knows our pain in His very flesh.

I resonate with what she tells me. In an instant I say, "It's like the moon: it's there, it's a presence in the night - and you long for its beauty. This is like the longing for a partner - you definitely want it, but the Sun - the brightness and beauty, bold radiance of the Sun - that's what you really want: that's your relationship with God - blazing warmth, life-giving, banishing all darkness. The moon only reflects that beauty - that radiance, that light. It's not that the moon doesn't have a purpose: earthly relationships of course have this beautiful purpose: they meet very real and important needs. But when we experience this desire, this longing, it is only because the deepest longing we have is the greater, more powerful longing to receive the very life of God." 

She agreed. I use metaphors when I speak, off the cuff, whatever comes. This metaphor spoke to her and she said, "You gotta write this down!!" And I said, "Ok. But only if I can quote you." So I did. And this is that.

There are real poets out there: those who know what they're doing, have crafted a fine art of putting words together. And then there are off-the-cuff poets like me, whose soul speaks poetry, unrefined, un-polished, imperfect. I guess I am the soul that speaks poetry.

I thought back to the Moon and the Sun metaphor. I resist oversimplifications. Is this an oversimplification? Of course it is: no doubt about it.

But it is an inescapable metaphor: nature speaks, does it not? If the moon does not shine at night, it is simply a moonless night. If the sun were to fail to rise, to shine, to shed its light, the earth would shrivel up and die. It is the Sun we need to sustain life. The moon has beauty (and even purpose - its gravity affects our entire planet!) - I am no geological scientist, but even the ignorant among us know this. It is our sun that we need to give life on earth. 

We live our lives with unmet and unfulfilled longings. It happens to all of us, even those with seemingly picture perfect lives. These hopes, desires, yearnings...these are the moon. They tell us there is a greater light, a greater warmth, a deeper need, a more powerful Existence that we ultimately long for. As the wise sage, C.S.Lewis put it, 'We are far too easily pleased.'

Some may say it is too early for Christmas music, but it is never a bad time to reflect on the best Christmas hymn of all time (Hark, the herald Angels Sing! by Charles Wesley for the uninformed). It is the best because it alludes to the words of the prophet Malachi. This last book of the Old Testament Canon is significant because the Israelite people are at a time of longing, of exile, of deep need. They've messed up badly, they need SO much. They don't know what they need. They're a mess. God speaks through Malachi to the people: I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. I'm going to bring justice, righteousness. You need to shape up. Here's what you need to do... (You get the picture). And then, right towards the end - the time before it seems God goes silent for a few hundred years (though of course God is never silent, so we do have intertestamental evidence of God's activity, but that is another discussion), God, through Malachi gives this most hopeful of all encouragements:

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves."

(Chapter 4:2).

This is in the middle of all kinds of judgements and warnings. God calls His people to revere His name, and uses the metaphor of the Sun to hint at the brilliance of Who He is: a Healer, a Bringer of Joy.

In our unmet longings, in our unfulfilled desires, we need joy - we need healing: we need the Sun of Righteousness to Rise to blaze beams of healing over us, to send us out with joyful dancing. 

Hail the Heav'n born Prince of Peace, Hail the Sun of Righteousness!!

Light and Life, to all He brings! Ris'n with healing in His wings.

Mild, He lays His glories by, Born that man no more may die!

Born to raise the sons of earth! Born to give them second birth!

"Hark!" The Herald angles sing! "Glory to the newborn King!"