The Practice of…..being tender
The Scripture…If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Deuteronomy 15:7-8
The Devotion…
This past Sunday was Mother’s Day and among the many wonderful accolades to mothers was a short video on a website called “Godspace. ” The video showed maternal images of God paired with the verses in scripture. Each of the images prompted one to think about God as tender. Not tender in an overly sweet way but tender in a nurturing, care giving way. In fact many of the images opened one to the thought of God as vulnerable …The images showed strength in vulnerability, tender images of a God who is not only tender, but is caring …in the best parental sense.
Being tender is to be vulnerable to another persons needs in a way that the person is not marginalized or shamed. Being tender requires we pause, see ourselves in our neighbors need. We can imagine the tenderness with which God would care for them, the way that God cares for all of us. Then we can open our heart and our hands to tenderly offer care.
Being tender to ourselves is a practice we attend when we listen to our body, mind and spirit on our mats This is a practice we carry with us off our mats and into the world as followers of Jesus.
