Scripture ~ “If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.” 2nd Corinthians 4:7 The Message
Spiritual Focus ~ “There is a soul within a soul. Seek it out. There is a treasure in your mountain. Seek it out. A mystic in motion, if that’s what you are, don’t seek out there; seek inside.” Rumi, 13th century Persian poet, scholar, and mystic
Breath Prayer ~ Inhale, healing; Exhale, whole(ness)
Devotion ~ The parallels between gardening the earth we inhabit and nurturing the vessels we embody offer an interesting model of healing and wholeness. When we cultivate the soil before planting a garden, we find all kinds of things. Besides rich soil we often find children’s toys, large rocks, and garbage. If we are lucky, we might find a treasure of jewelry, old coins, or even a time capsule. As we turn over the dirt, we discard the unnecessary and keep what is valuable to nurture the soil for the health of the garden. In the same way when we are soul gardening, cultivating the self within, we uncover old patterns of thinking, ideas, and habits that don’t nurture our own health and need to be cleared out.
Our scripture reminds us that deep within our ordinary lives there lies a treasure, the good news of God’s love and presence. Both Paul and Rumi suggest that we are more than meets the eye. The treasure of who we are continues to be nurtured by a loving God and is worth cultivating. We are created whole, in the image of God, and that wholeness is the treasure we carry deep within our souls.
Nikki Meyers, founder of Y12SR (Yoga 12 step recovery), offers a similar perspective on wholeness. She described holding her newborn great-granddaughter and thinking “She is whole”; this new baby is complete because the world has not added its designations to her—telling her who she is due to her gender, skin color, looks, personality, etc. Before all of that was added, we were all whole. “Therefore, healing and wholeness are always processes of subtraction, never addition.” We are created whole and God continues to participate with us, cultivating the vessel we inhabit, healing and loving us in our ordinary lives.” [1]
[1] As told by Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Subtraction” in The Corners, April 26, 2022, https://thecorners.substack.com/p/subtraction/comments?s=r.
