The Gaze of Jesus


Since March 17 I have been writing these daily meditations. Most of them have been composed in my “study” where I have settled in for the duration with myriad books, an altar and a window onto God’s creation! 
Outside the window is an apple tree which has come to full green just this week! In addition to watching the soft pink and white blossoms change and pondering resurrection, I was able to watch a nest be built in a crack of a large branch and witness new life fledge!
Last week while gazing at the birds going in and out like angels ascending and descending, I pulled my gaze back ever so slightly and realized Jesus was watching. 
On the edge of the nest crack was a gnarled piece of wood overlapping and aged in such a way as to cause the shadows and forms to look to me like the head and shoulders of Christ.His arm is gently folded up and over his shoulder as though bless, to protect and to shelter the birds, the tree, and me. 
This pastoral image of Jesus has felt like the blessing of a mezuzah on the entrance to the birds’ home and mine.
He gazes and I see the kindness on His face, His body gently curved in prayer.
John O’Donohue says eloquently what I am having some difficulty with:

The Eyes of Jesus

I imagine the eyes of Jesus were harvest brown,
the light of their gazing suffused with the seasons;

the shadow of winter, the mind of spring,
the blues of summer, and amber of harvest.

A gaze that is perfect sister to the kindness the dwells in his beautiful hands.

The eyes of Jesus gaze on us, stirring in the heart's clay
the confidence of seasons that never lose their way to harvest.

This gaze knows the signature of our heartbeat, the first glimmer
from the dawn that dreamed our minds,

the crevices where thoughts grow long before the longing in the bone
sends them towards the mind's eye,

The artistry of the emptiness that knows to slow the hunger
of outside things until they weave into the twilight side of the heart,

A gaze full of all that is still future looking out for us to glimpse
the jeweled light in winter stone,

Quickening the eyes that look at us to see through to where words
are blind to say what we would love,

Forever falling softly on our faces, his gaze plies the soul with light,
laying down a luminous layer,

Beneath our brief and brittle days until the appointed dawn comes
assured and harvest deft

To unravel the last black knot and we are back home in the house that we have never left.
John O’Donohue

The birds are home now and so am I. Throughout the day I am consoled by the gaze of Jesus from the apple tree “laying down luminous layers” of grace. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open or Closed

Image
Last Friday, Good Friday, the Governor of Connecticut issued order 7X to extend the time of closure for nonessential businesses through May 20. While this did not come as a great shock and may in fact be extended further, it has cause me to ponder church during this strange time. Church in the truest sense of the word is not closed! (We can argue another time whether it is nonessential?!) Yes, the building is shut; yes, we are not gathering on Sundays physically.  But...the ways in which "church" is continuing are simply amazing and grace-filled! This tension has caused me to focus on what the church is...the Body of Christ finding ways to worship and serve. That is still "open". For me, ministering to the sick has become so difficult yet certainly more intentional and emergent. For me, prayer has deepened and lengthened.  I recall at the end of my first zoom Bible Study a remark was made: now that was church! I suppose we all showed up to pray and ponde...
Read more

Love is Love

Image
  Blessed be God who animates our lives and loves us beyond measure that we too might bring love into the world. AMEN What a joy and honor to be here! I have been privileged to journey with Dana and now, to witness with her cloud of witnesses the sacrament of ordination, is something to behold!  Anyone who knows Dana knows she is passionate about the two great commandments and one of the creative ways she marks this covenant of Love with a capital L is to point consistently to the Robert Indiana Sculpture, that famous square of L O V E! (parenthetically the work of art also marks her love of Philadelphia) But let me use Love as the jumping off point today for it seems to me that no matter what or where or when, the Gospels point us to the Love of God or more accurately toward the God who is Love. And this love is expressed and lived and surrounds us through the mysterious and powerful dynamic of the Trinity. Moreover in our precious sacramental lives, ordination being such a m...
Read more

An Unending Prayer

Image
  “ We’re only here for a minute, ...We’re here for a little window. And to use that time to catch and share shards of light and laughter and grace seems to me the great story.” Brian Doyle It was the most glorious Sabbath! A day marked by crystal cold temperatures and sapphire blue skies. A day for thinking about winter and spring instead of either/or.  Perhaps it was that nondualistic approach to patches of snow next to tiniest of buds which caused me to travel with my mother on a walk. It started of course with tears at her non-physical presence and somewhere in the middle I felt I was accompanied by her spirit. Though our earthly presence is bounded by the tiniest of time, our next realm presence is boundless. Some mighty presence continues and the quality of that presence is for me consoling and inspiring. I found myself thinking about the shards of light and laughter and grace of the day, of the holy time, of her life and the story grew instead of diminishing. I thought ...
Read more