Every Birthing

NOTE: what follows is a response written in creative, poetic prose on the idea of biblical hope.

The biblical word ‘Hope’ is all to do with waiting, tense with expectation. And that hope is based upon the faithfulness of God in the past; we look to that to fuel our hope for his future kingdom.

“I want it now, why do I have to wait?”,
“Be patient”, I was told in days of old,
“I’ve only got so many arms”, “I can’t do everything at once!” is now my response.

Instant gratification solved my probelms was my placation.
Yet as we grow older we come to realise that impatience and frustration don’t make a good life.
It seems that every good thing takes time to flourish and ripens only when it is destined to do so.

A life of immidiacy may seem thrilling and desirable but ultimately does no more than scratch the surface, leaving the soul malnourished and under resourced.
It takes time to learn the basics, embed and master new skills.
You can’t build a house, or much else without learning first, then practicing, making mistakes and developing your craft.

So too, I think, with the spiritual life. To develop your inner spiritual life, to craft inner temples and tread on the vast unknown terrains within takes diligence and humility.
Acceptance of the lowly beginning of apprentice from which we all must start.

The route to growth/life is failure learned from. So we willingly take up our burdensome crucifix and pursue the wild entity, who so freely did us from our chains loose.
For blood, sweat and tears are the elixir of life we seek,
pain and discomfort are the crest we must peak,
in order to become like the Son we learned from.

And over time as we graft and proactively wait, follow the flow of breathe,
like a skilled sailor we wait for the change in breeze, waiting on Spirit.
Developed and grown from within we become, until the promised of flourishing.
Ripened at the destined time, the gift given to deliver is ready to be birthed into reality, through excruciating pain, for the benefit of us all.

Every birthing of Spirit-embodiment bring us all closer to union. And when we look into the face of that One, in whose glow we shall know as we are known, we will be made new.

So we wait in tense expectation, and with gritted teeth lean in and become.