Lectio
“The interesting thing is that when you can forgive people for not being God, then you can celebrate that they are a reflection of God, a reflection of God’s great unconditional love.”
— Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction
Meditatio
I struggle with seeing the image of God in you because I struggle with seeing the image of God in myself. But I want to. I want to see you as Jesus sees you. I want to see myself as Jesus sees me.
I want to love as He has loved. I want to forgive as He has forgiven. I want to see everyone around me as a beloved child of God. I want to see myself as a beloved child of God.
But there is so much brokenness in me. My wounds are deep and they have not yet healed. And it seems as though, as soon as one wound does heal, another opens up, or the truth of the depth of the wound is revealed.
But with every wound and with every depth, Christ reveals more love. The more my heart is broken open, the more Christ reveals Himself to me. The more Christ reveals Himself in me. And my capacity for Christ grows. And my capacity for love — both received and given — grows.
And so my brokenness, my wounds and my darkness, become my capacity. They become my capacity for Christ — for Love. The cracks in my hardened heart become the places where love is allowed to enter and from which love pours out. For it is my suffering, once transformed, that gives me the capacity for compassion. It is my trauma that makes me want to be a conduit of divine healing unto others.
In my sin, in my brokenness, Christ enters through the very wounds by which I was torn open, and it is there, in that opening, that I am given new sight — sight by which I may see the image of God in you and the image of God in me, through the eyes of God in me — if I dare to look.
Through the eyes of God, I see that your suffering is not who you are, nor is it who you desired to be because this was not what God, who abides in you, intended for you. I see this because, by grace, I know that my suffering is not who I am, nor was it who I desired to be because this was not what God, who abides in me, intended for me either.
And though I struggle to maintain this sight, I pray. I pray that God allows me to see the image of God in you, and to see the image of God in me. I pray that whatever is not God in you and whatever is not God in me be transformed through Christ, or at least used for His purpose. And I know that even this prayer, the capacity for which is not my own, pours forth from my lips by way of the grace that loves you and that loves me, even when you or I cannot see it.
Oratio
For You Lord
may my hardened heart
break open
to receive You, Lord
to reveal You, Lord
my wounds
my suffering
are not for nothing
if they are for You, Lord
though life at times
feels hopeless
You are my hope, Lord
You give me new life, Lord
with nowhere left to turn
I turned to You, Lord
Your hand already
outstretched for me
Contemplatio
You do not have to heal your wounds before you can be seen, or before you can see. Let Christ enter through the very places you thought were only broken. Sit with this in silence, consenting to His presence, and let Him move in you however He wills.
Related Scripture
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
— 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Clothed in Love: Julian of Norwich and the Fear That Leads Us Home (Lectio Divina), which meets a kindred fear from another angle — not the fear of being unable to see, but the fear of being too wounded to receive the love already given.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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