Wednesday, November 10, 2021

FACE

 

Dear All of Us,

My daughter caught a cold.

When nursing six month old

Ollie The Younger,

she puts on a mask.

A plus health-wise, 

but not so otherwise.

Ollie loves being held 

and nourished by his Mom.

He also delights 

in looking at her

and her looking at him.

        Love Look

So, Ollie started reaching up

trying to pull away the mask.


The wisdom of the pure.


With a significant twist,

there's a reverse parallel 

in our spiritual lives.


We love being in 

   God's embrace. 

We delight in our

    Face to Face

    Love Look

God to us, us to God.


But masks get in the way.  


The terrible twist is that

God isn't masked at all, 

but we too often 

fabricate masks 

that we then impose 

on God or ourselves.

(Technically, well really,

it's idolatry - fashioning 

our own version of God and 

our presence and openness

to God as God "IS"

and we actually are ).

Those masks frustrate our 

face to face love with God.


They come in all sorts of 

sizes and compositions.

What kinds of masks 

do we and our culture 

put in front of God's face

or our face?

It would be freeing 

to regularly look in 

our spiritual mirrors.

Some examples:

 - Civil Religion, 

   God masked in a flag.

 - Dense Denims of "Ism"  - 

   me-ism, militarism, 

   consumer/consumption-ism?

 - Drapings of superficial,

   surface preoccupation 

   and stimulation

   in our life styles,

   dulling to opaqueness.

- Framing God in overly dogmatic, 

  ritual laden religion.

- Self serving feel good religion.

Just a few mask types that  block

         Love Look


Let's take a radically real look

at how we and our culture 

haze over God and our

readiness for clear channel 

        Love Look

Let's do as Ollie does -

pull away those maskings

that get in the way.

Then we can clearly see 

to share in God's 

       Love Look 

      

Love isn't a controlled or

camouflaged encounter.


Love is face to face 

union and rapture

         and 

   "God is love."

  ( 1 John 4:8 )


So we pray and follow

the lead of the psalmist:

"You have said,

 "Seek my face."

  My heart says to you, 

 "Your face Lord, 

   do I seek."

      For sure!

   ( Psalm 27:8 )


       The Lord bless us 

       and keep us;

       The Lord make his face 

       shine upon us,

       and be gracious to us;

       The Lord lift 

       his countenance 

       upon us,

       and give us peace"

        (Adaptation of

       Numbers 6:24-26)


           John Frank


       frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com


             POSTED

Wednesday afternoons

East coast USA time

Please consider book marking


             EMAIL

Arrives Friday

Sign up top of online posting


     BLOG ARCHIVE

All past postings

Right column online posting


Looking forward to us all 

gathering here next week.

           ******