The Long Way Home: Wild Advent

Very early on, humans learn to settle for way less than we deserve. We feel hungry, cold, and tired, leading to fear, frustration, and anger. In the absence of loving care, human nervous systems cannot thrive. They often do survive, however. 

But we're created for so much more than mere survival. Made in the image of God, we are created by Love, for love. 

Humans are endlessly resilient, adapting to all sorts of substandard environments: War, famine, abuse, and addictions of all kinds... The remarkable ways our brains and bodies change to accommodate various unimaginable and horrific stressors are, to me, signs of the existence of a loving creator who ultimately desires our flourishing.

There is a story in the Hebrew Bible of Moses leading the ancient Israelites through the treacherous wilderness out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved. The people were not led by the shorter route through potentially dangerous Philistine territory; instead, God leads them along the longer route. According to the biblical writers, by the shorter route, the people may have decided to retreat back to Egypt, where, despite their forced servitude, they had learned to settle. 

Sometimes, frustrating though it may seem, the long way home is crucial to the changes necessary for our flourishing. (Nobody says wilderness is easy!) This being human is a guest house, the poet Rumi suggests. Try to welcome everything, even the hard stuff. 

We are created by Love for love. Settling for less is, I suppose, optional. I pray you will choose otherwise.

May you soften enough to receive the Love that you deserve. 

Because I love you, here's a sweet excerpt from Margery Williams Bianco's The Velveteen Rabbit...
 

'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit. 

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.' 

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?' 

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'

💛