I started journaling, wanted to share with a friend then though I’ll share on my blog. Way back in twenty-twenty one of the desires of my heart, other than being a good quilter, is to grow in Intimacy with God. This desire remains deeply in my being.
The readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (<— link to the readings) talk about God wanting to marry us, to be in relationship with us, to be intimate with us. And today the threads through the readings are filled with the electricity of connection. Isaiah starts the conversation and Jesus lives it in a complete way. Often when hearing or reading my heart (Coeur – soul) will engage in a way that takes me off in a delightful thinking of how much God loves us or how this draws us deeper into the Life of the Creator, into Life with our Creator.
We often speak of intimacy as a give and take relationship.
I propose and (hopefully) live this as more of a Give and Receive and Give and Deepen relationship.
Give and Receive is a wholly different dynamic living inside a deep sense of freedom of personhood. In the marriage relationship with is both respectful of the other, deepening the appreciation of what’s given and receiving with gratitude. This reception with gratitude opens the other to giving and receiving with deeper freedom. Living a marriage or friendship in that freedom is energizing, electric, intimate, holy.
Taking often connotes a rejection of what is offered and grabbing something else instead. Taking connotes a sense of entitlement that what you have is now mine and I can have what I want when I want it without asking.
Standing in a place of receiving that which is freely given brings us to a place of gratitude and honor. This allows us to begin to appreciate the beauty and needs of the other wholly and completely. It takes us to a place of waiting and anticipation. Oh yes, impatience comes sometimes and messes us about, yet that anticipation offers us the opportunity to further enjoy the gift when it’s offered. We begin to see the other as a whole person in their own right, not as some Thing to be owned, rather as a person who is revealing themselves to us as a gift and treasure.
This also places what we give to the other in that same light. Our spouse, our friend learns patience and anticipation. They get to discover who we are through what we give. We learn to trust the other with the treasures and wounds. Yes, wounds too. Oh I could riff on that. Receptivity is a healing balm sometimes slathered on thickly out of necessity and generosity and sometimes thinly, gently.
I am enjoying the ever revealing intimacy with my Creator. While I am not quite fully ready to reveal some things here one day I may. When I hold back it’s because others are involved and it is not mine to share their part of my story.
May you ever grow in intimacy with Jesus.
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 