Monday, 24 May, 2004

The focus of these devotions is Walter Wink’s book “The Human Being” and a section dealing with the vision of the Son of the Man in Ezekiel.



…we are incapable of becoming human by ourselves. We scarcely know what humanness is. We have only the merest intuitions and general guidelines. Jesus has, to be sure, revealed to us something of what it means to live an authentic human life. But how do I translate that into my own struggles for humanness? …what am I to do? Metaphysically speaking, God is the ultimate mystery, but to myself I am an even more impenetrable mystery. Who am I? I have accepted my parents’ answers, my culture’s answers, the answers of mentors and peers and colleagues. But how do they know? What are the exact outlines of my true form? How can I find out, unless God reveals it to me? For who else could possibly know what is stored in the divine image inside me, except that One who is the divine image inside me?



We are not invited into something beyond our capabilities as human beings. Just think of this one – Love one another. We could take that a bit farther – Love one another as I have love you. Wasn’t Jesus saying that as part of how he loved each and every day? Wasn’t that a love that was translated in, with & under human existence that is a real as each one who is blessed to be made in the image of God? It is too easy to sell ourselves short. We are blessed to forgive…to love…to be a witness to life that is merciful, compassionate, just…even to the point of it being the death of us. And yet, there is the life…the mystery of being human…the mystery of Christ in which the grace of God prevails and shapes life as we do not yet know it completely.



Connection: To step beyond where we are and who we think we may be in this day is to step out into a mystery that is beyond our knowing. That is why we are encouraged to breathe deeply and take in that Spirit of life that reveals the power of God’s image to us within the mundane aspects of this day. Go ahead breathe…and again…and again.



Teach us, O God, to be satisfied by the water of life that you bring to us in our baptism. Refresh us this day with your never ending spring of wholeness and healing and love that is the power to stretch us and pull us beyond what we know into the realm of your gracious Reign. Amen.