Today we read about Jesus praying for his disciples (in the reading of John 17) "that they may be one." One way to look at that oneness is to see it as a situation when we become less aware of self proclaimed identities or personas. In that oneness we also move away from judgements about others. Jesus prays that we all may be protected from evil and darkness in the name of the Father, just as he protected the disciples while he walked with them.
We gather as the church to be reminded of this prayer for protection which draws us in to the center -- the very heart of God revealed through Christ.
In that center we experience the purest expression of God's love, peace and joy. But we don't just sit there in a womblike nest, basking indefinitely in our own sense of peace. In that center we have our sight and focus clarified so that we may see others not the way WE would see them (which is so often by focusing upon differences or lines of delineation) but rather as God sees them.
As a result of your ongoing presence "in Christ" you have been given a lens (like a filter on a camera lens) that enables you to look at each person, place and situation seeing the beauty, hope, joy and love that God intended at its creation. Allow the lens to filter out anything that would mar your perception, including your OWN resistance to looking at somebody or something that up until now had been seen as "unfavorable".
Allowing yourself to view the world in this way, your heart and mind may be transformed...and the awareness of the source of that transformation will draw you simultaneously back to the center AND outwards into relationships and activities that you had never planned or even imagined.
May your week be blessed! Expect to be amazed and filled with awe!
