Why is it so difficult to entrust your heart to someone’s care? Because we are asking them to hold up something so precious. We are not asking for an opinion or judgment. We are not soliciting advice. We are not asking to chat.
We are asking for someone to listen to and love us. We are asking to be cared about. We are declaring our need to be held. We want our deepest thoughts to be held in confidence, our feelings in tenderness, our pain in compassion, our needs in respect and our wants and wishes in love.
We are asking to be held up for a time, to let us lean, to be offered support, to be allowed to heal.
Being held is healing. It is to be deeply touched. An embrace expresses care and concern and compassion. It is an effort to squeeze away the fear of pain. It offers a rod to help straighten another’s spiritual spine. At this time, none of that healing physical contact is available to us.
Do you remember being told to “pull yourself up by your boot straps?” It cannot be done without someone to hold you, to help you. There are times when we must ask for support. We need to be held up by the love of others.
Now, more than ever, as we continue with the uncertainty of lockdowns, isolation, shortage of testing and, more worrying, lack of promised vaccines, we must continue to reach out, the best we can, and hold each other up.
Yes, we are tired. Yes, we have already called and checked on our friends many times over. But we cannot stop now. The journey is not yet over and the enemy is not yet vanquished.
February, the month of love is here. Let’s make it extra special this year!
Let’s end in prayer.
Holy One, get me in touch with my own heart so I may touch the heart of others.
Let me be as your heart to the world, beating with your generosity and love.
Let me risk sharing my heart with you and with those you have placed in my life.
Let me love as you love, accept as you accept and forgive as you forgive. Amen.
Beryl
[Inspired by the writings of Pastor William R. Grimbol in The Three Graces: Faith, Hope and Love]