Letting the Light of Easter In

 

As we cross the threshold into Thursday, pause with me.

Start with exhaling all that you have been holding this week, then into that empty space let in the breath of God.

Be with me in this moment with all its beauty and brokenness; with all it celebrations and concerns.  With its befuddling faithfulness.

This series of morning meditations was inspired by the work of Richard Rohr.  He talks about what he calls the Cosmic Egg.

No, this is not some dish you can order at a local farm to table restaurant.  Nor is it a recipe for you to use up those hard-boiled Easter Eggs from Sunday. 

It is a symbolic, Easter-inspired, image for you and me.  Rohr says at the center of the cosmic egg is you.  You are like the yoke of an egg.  You are full of the building blocks of life.  Not just in random order, but crafted, created, loved into being by God. 

The white part of the egg is known as “our story”.  This refers to the people you connect to and find meaning alongside.  You can think of communities like your family and friends.  Or you might view this through the lens of your neighborhood, city, or state.  Your community might be on-line with group chats.  You can think about your political community as many scholars suggest that our political identity/connects have become more important than family in recent years (that is another whole series for the morning meditations).  What connections/community impact and influence who you are?

Finally, there is the shell of the egg which is the bigger story or what Rohr calls, “The Story”.  As people in the world today we are very suspicious of anyone telling us something is “the” story.  It sounds oppressive and we often find ways to criticize how that story isn’t true for me in my story.  To be sure, the vast variety of voices and beautiful diversity means that trying to capture “the” story is fraught and fragile.  The story can silence or sideline people.  Perhaps that is because what we are often told is “the story” is only “our story”.  Trying to name “the story” is challenging.  But I do believe, deep in my heart, Holy Week is one example of “the story” in which we can find both “our story” and “my story”.  I can find myself in the Hosannas of Palm Sunday, brokenness of bread, suffering of Good Friday, and the hope (even when baffling) of Easter.

I invite you to hold this image prayerfully in your heart this day.

Prayer: God who is the author of a story that connects us to each other and is at the core of who I am, let Your words and wisdom be written upon my heart in these days.  Amen.