Thinking Anglicans

Image of God

an imaginative meditation for Christmas Day

I wept the day I gave birth. In the middle of all the joy, I looked and I wept. What I had called into being, I had also called into pain. The nearest, dearest, first, who opened his eyes wide and flung out his arms, he would carry the worst of the suffering. I had longed so for joy and companionship, but looking, I could see I had made pain. I had made struggle, and growth. I had begotten a child in my own image. I had created pain, for without pain, no one could be my companion.

I rejoiced the day I gave birth. I looked and my heart was filled with pride and joy. Those tiny sparks, reflected flickering lights, were crammed with courage and joy despite the darkness which surrounded them. I saw them struggle to live and to love, and, miraculously, even to give birth and to create. I saw love reflected in a thousand ways, in a myriad of broken miniature mirrors, and to me each of the tiny reflections seemed more beautiful than the original, lived as it was in partial darkness and unknowing.

And as I looked I saw the first in all his glory. My heart stopped at the beauty and the courage of him, at the love which filled him to the core, such love that it pulsed out of him, and all the flickering lights grew stronger, and the reflection grew and dazzled until the darkness began to roll back.

His eyes sought mine, and he called out to me: ‘Father, glorify your name.’

I caught his meaning, and my heart broke and reformed and joy filled me, oozing up to cover the pain, bright and overmastering. I looked at true beauty in wonder, and the wonder was that all of this was my own image. ‘I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.’ I answered.

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Peter Muir
Peter Muir
15 years ago

Wow, Rosemary. Powerful words. I loved this; thank you for something very special this Christmastide. God bless.

Meg Gilley
Meg Gilley
15 years ago

Superb! Thank you.

drdanfee
drdanfee
15 years ago

Merry Christmas to all, rights, middles lefts, outsiders, all.

Father Ron Smith
Father Ron Smith
15 years ago

Rosemary, having now read the latest thread on T.A. by Andrew Spurr, I must say that your perspective on the Incarnation Story, has a much more feminine, and therefore heart-warming feel to it. To have been able to evoke the experience of God The Father – as a woman might – is to have bridged a necessary gap in understanding from the more coolly observation angle, to that of one who has ‘brought forth’ the Saviour of the World. One of the problems of the present stand-off in the Church between the perspectives of ‘female’ and ‘male’ is, I think,… Read more »

ford Elms
ford Elms
15 years ago

“This is perhaps where the LGBT community might be able to provide some insights into the mystery that is at the heart of the possibility of an infinite variety of gender-rated behavioural response.”

People have to be open to this, though. A large factor in the conservative response to both OOW and gay people is that they are scared to death of any new insights into “an infinite variety of gender related behaviour response”. There is only one, traditional, accepted model of such behaviour, and any deviation from that is misguided, sinful, dangerous, or any combination thereof.

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