Sadness shakes him, stakes him to the ground. His eyes yearn toward home, when out of the mists comes a vision for eyes and spirit. A drapery lifts and Daniel's knees collapse. He is touched and stands; He stutters and a touch gives him utterance; weak knees tremble and a touch makes him strong.
Beyond our eyes is a realm we cannot comprehend. Powers and principalities play tug of war above our heads, pulling strings and fomenting wars.
Though we can't see it, it is there.
What you do and say impacts this invisible world. Acts of faith are stronger than you know: disarming enemies and empowering good. Like touching Power to give or take strength.
Though you may never see results, it matters. Though you feel cut off and useless, you matter.
The garden abuts the cemetery as spring shadows winter.
The tomb was in a garden where Jesus was laid, but only for a moment did He rest there. When despair came walking, head down and heart dragging, stunned and shattered by the violence of recent days, the body was gone. Mary saw angels through swimming eyes who questioned her, then a Gardener flipped the switch by speaking her name. At the bottom of a stinking pit, mired with disillusion and fragmented hope a light bloomed. Early in the morning when it was still dark, in a garden graveyard death imploded. Creation energy churned and stirred atoms bringing life to that which had died. Resurrection power. "Why are you crying?" the Gardener asks, where have your hopes been buried? What scars have lace-hardened your heart? "Who are you looking for?" What do you long to believe? What moments strike you to the marrow with aching Beauty? What Truth do you yearn for?
Will you believe the gaping maw of the tomb is the strongest power? Or will you heed the Gardener whose Goodness conquers death?
*Next to You, God, our filth is exposed in blinding light. Our wrongs pile up in mountainous heaps. No one is clean before You. Even our most righteous acts are marred with self-interest. As individuals and as a whole, we have failed You again and again. Can I, like Daniel pray "we" as I glimpse the fractures in the world today? Can I identify with the oppressed and oppressor alike? Are all wrongs my wrongs? **Jesus - clean as a whistle - dives into the cleansing water before exiling Himself to the burning sand for forty days. ***Another time He prays over Jerusalem, likening His affection to a hen protecting her chicks. He prayed "we." He prays "we" today. How shall we live in times of hostility? In times of blame and shame? By emulating Christ and identifying with a broken world. By praying "we" for all shivering souls.
