IN TIMES LIKE THESE by Phyllis Cole-Dai
The wound is the place where the light enters you. —Rumi
In times like these we must dare to feel joy.
We cannot wait till every line
of thunder has marched through to the east.
Our job is to make love to this world now
when the luminosity of love being made
can reveal how everything matters.
There is no storm this light cannot enter,
no dark so turbulent, dense, and hard
this light will not break through—
light will keep coming for you
like a mama bear who hears your forsaken cries
and huffs over the river rocks to save you.
It’s still the dead of night when she spots you
high in the pine tree fear made you climb.
Are you not glad to be found?
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To see images of reunited families has brought me to tears this week— how rare it has become to see any embodiment of joy on the faces of Jewish or Palestinian people for the last two years. Seeing the relief and joy of the hostages coming home felt like watching a miracle. Likewise, to see Palestinian prisoners released to their families was like watching rain fall in the desert.
With this amazing joy there is also so much grief, rage, and wreckage left behind. It feels like only a courageous path of vulnerability will be able to transform deep-seated resentments toward a way of hope and healing. My prayer for peace in the Middle East is a prayer for the kind of deep, ongoing reckoning exhibited through the process of restorative justice.
In the wake of news we have prayed for and news we are weary of, I take on Phyllis Cole-Dei's words to heart "in times like these we must dare to feel joy." Always we are on the brink of beauty just as we could be on the brink of breaking, so let us find ways to find joy in the hope of right now. Let us remember what it's like to be held tightly by those who love us. From that space of love, let us have ears like the mama bear who hears the cries for rebuilding, for healing, for peace-making, and finds a way to create a safe place for those in our care. Perhaps it is in these actions we can find a way toward that kind of abundant hope we so crave in our world. Perhaps it is in these things our true purpose resides: to hold what is good, keep safe the vulnerable around us, and dare to feel joy on the journey.
With Joy and Gratitude,
Pastor Laruen