you got so much love in you

you got so much love in you
i'm amazed that i'm talkin' to you...

--Bryce Avary (The Rocket Summer)

i have a friend who's on a journey right now. but it's one of those journeys where you have to stay in one place to take it. i admire his perseverence though, because if i ever knew a wanderer, it was him.

we write each other often, and in his last letter he pondered beauty--not the kind you can see with your eyes but the True beauty that happens beneath all that. it reminded me of something i think of often and have been coming across in a lot of books i've been reading lately. we spoke of beauty only the Spirit can sense and i marvelled all over again that there is a convergence that goes unseen--the way the very Spirit of God can dwell in two different bodies and communicate with itself--commune with itself--between us.

can you even imagine the magic that is happening when we speak? can you see it in their eyes??
i realize being indwelt by the Spirit and the imago dei are different things, but all the same--both are indescribable. when is the last time you sensed your self had drifted away with the self of another and the Spirit richly drew itself into itself between an expanse as small as a few words? have you? wow i don't know if i have--that could be amazing! i hope this doesn't sound all sci-fi or something...i just mean to say that wouldn't it be crazy if we actually bothered to let the Spirit dwell richly in and among us??

i've been looking at people lately.
as long as i can remember, i never really did that. i'm not a people-looker (and most of the time they drive me nuts--when you can feel someone looking at you, like in the passenger seat of a car you're driving...annoying!) but...well it's also because i'm nearsighted and i just honestly can't see folks who aren't in my immediate line of vision so well.
but lately...i've been looking. i was just looking into the eyes of a man on a page, just a normal man, and he was smiling a smile that has slept outside a few too many nights and missed a few too many meals...and i lost my breath. because just there...in the dim twinkle of his right eye...was my Lord.



"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."


--Mt. 25:31-46