Dear Friends,
Many of us were made tender during our recent yearly meeting. In some, the openings of new understanding or of compassion have been felt; in some, wounds were received or renewed, or new healing begun. Now is the time, before our habits and duties overwhelm our inward senses, to acknowledge to ourselves the stirrings of transformation, the places where a promise has been felt, or fresh power entered in. The first growth is tender, and needs cherishing, and cultivation by the harrows of love. The hatchlings in a nest, an opening bud, the child Moses set adrift, the Babe in Bethlehem, the burning hearts on the road to Emmaus, the hearts and minds of the women at the Easter tomb, wounded by grief and then surprised by joy: Have you tasted something like this, however small? Remember the truth of it, now, and consider how it should accompany you in weakness and in growth.
Inward, spiritual events, are real events. They take on substance as we wait to feel, and then act upon, what word or deed will let it draw us further into life, the freedom and mild learning yoke that Jesus invited us to, Step by step, poco a poco, we can follow the guide, and feel the consolation and the power, our poverty and our joy, the fire and the holy Spirit.
And it is not given to us only, this precious little thing. As we bring a new leading or new opening into the light of love and truth, we will be sent opportunities to share some crumbs at least of the little loaf put in our hands. It is told how, when Sequoyah had begun to spread his writing system among the Cherokee in the 1820s, if a man who had learned it met someone on the road, he would ask if the other could read using the new system. If not, he would begin teaching him there and then. Do you have even some rudiments of new learning to tell others about, in simplicity and as a gift, not a demand? We give thanks, then we break bread, and share it out, but first we look to see if the bread is good to share, if we feel it is nourishing. Often, our plain bread will be enriched by something given to another to share. We cannot take in all the bounty that the Founder of the feast has for his friends, all at once, but once we are at the table, our portion is ready. As the Common Prayer book of my youth said, “Draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort. Feed on Him in your hearts, by faith, with thanksgiving.”
So we are not to despise the first little puttings forth of the divine life in us, but honor them. As in the first springtime, it is best to look for the little beginnings, and feel how they open us up with their fresh opening. As Penn said of the First Publishers: “They were changed men [sic] in those days, before they went about to change others. Their hearts were rent, as well as their garments.” But they were moved to declare that they had seen the dawn, and shared that much, as they and their friends watched to see what the unfolding day would bring, of challenge, of work, of journeying, and delight.
In Christian love your Friend,
Brian Drayton