 |
| Journey Toward Wholeness |
The circle and the spiral have become important images for me as I reflect on my life with God. (See previous posts Spinning in Circles and Spinning into the Invisible.) I have recently returned again to the image of the spiral, but with a bit different perspective.
I've titled this painting "Journey Toward Wholeness". It is an image of the path of my life, our lives. Through life we are always moving, always growing, always being shaped by each encounter and experience. We are always on a path. But, I have learned to see the path of life less as a linear destination and more as a spiral, full of turning. The rhythm of our lives continually brings us to shifts and changes, different seasons and spaces. As in the spiral too, sometimes we return to the same linear point, but we are present in a different way, not quite at the same place we were before. Life, or God, has a way of both bringing us into new encounters, new places, and returning us again to the same, or similar experiences, encounters, relationships, learnings, gifts and struggles. Sometimes the path takes us inward, to wrestle and to be encountered with the face of God within our very selves. Sometimes the path takes us outward, to encounter the face of God as we are present with and engage life that surrounds us.
If we are attending to this journey, through these turnings and returnings God reveals God's self and we are created into the image of God more fully. God is ever present at the center, within the turning, at the rim, and beyond. We walk this path over and over, inward and outward. As we journey both inward and outward, we are stretched and grown, we see our souls more fully, we see God more fully.
And we do not journey alone. Like the firefly, we journey with a longing, a seeking. And we share that longing with all. As we journey along our path, we are joined by others who are journeying along their own paths. We are companions as we are continually drawn closer to the heart of God, toward wholeness.
