Lens of Love
Sometimes we don't see ourselves, our beautifully messed up, warped self.
We see what we expect others see of us. We attribute our being the way others ascribe characteristics. We see them in the corners of our mind, in hushed tones, speaking, pointing, seeing...
We see ourselves as the enemy of our souls sees us - whether in hushed tones or with adulation and applause...or somewhere in between.
We see ourselves through lenses that are concave and hollow versus convex and continuous.
But often what we don't see...we don't see ourselves from the lens of love that Christ has for us.
One of my favorite quotes is attributed to a number of people, but was written by modern day spiritual mystic Marianne Williamson. The words that ring in my ear are...
"You are a child of God...We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."
At some point when we have those days, and we all do, regardless of our successes or our failures we have to remember that we are children of God and that he created us through a lens of love that is so deep and abiding that the David, writer of Psalm 139, looked up and said...
"For You shaped me, inside and out.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You
As I took shape in secret,
carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb."
(Ps 139: 13-15,The Voice version)
He created you in secret so the world would not yet know the glory of who you are. You may not yet know...if you don't I encourage you to read the Psalm in it's entirety. Get to know God's unfailing love for you.
...and I leave you with Marianne's words...
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
