As Jesus walks among us and we look into his eyes

Sitting in the office this morning I take a moment to ponder the road before us in this time of Epiphany.

We are encouraged this time of year to hear again the stories of Jesus’ ministry; the call of the first disciples and the invitation for us to follow.

We will explore who this Jesus was and is.

We will discern what part we now play in his ministry and what we have to offer.

We will take the time to get to know him – his vision and his passion.

This journey is not a new for us. We have taken it many times before and each time, if we are open to Spirit, there is the opportunity for a deeper understanding and a newness of life.

As Jesus walks among us and we look into his eyes

In the midst of these thoughts I took off my shelf “To Bless The Space Between Us” by John O’Donohue and it fell open to a piece called “The Eyes of Jesus”

The Eyes of Jesus

I imagine the eyes of Jesus were harvest brown,
the light of their gazing suffused with the seasons:
the shadow of winter
the mind of spring
the blues of summer
and amber of harvest.

A gaze that is perfect sister
to the kindness that dwells in his beautiful hands.

The eyes of Jesus gaze on us,
stirring in the heart’s clay the confidence of seasons
that never lose their way to harvest.

This gaze knows the signature of our heartbeat,
the first glimmer from the dawn that dreamed our minds,
the crevices where thoughts grow
long before the longing in the bone sends them to the mind’s eye,
the artistry of the emptiness that knows to slow the hunger
of outside things until they weave into the twilight side of the heart.

A gaze full of all that is still future
looking out for us to glimpse the jewelled light of winter stone.
quickening the eyes that look at us to see through
to where words are blind to say that we would love.

Forever falling softly on our faces,
his gaze piles the soul with light,
laying down luminous layer beneath our brief and brittle days

until the appointed harvest comes assured and harvest left
to unravel the last black knot
and we are back home in the house we never left.

As we move into this season of discernment and discovery; as we open ourselves to the light that shines upon and within us; as Jesus walks among us and we look into his eyes may we feel his gaze “stirring in the heart’s clay the confidence of seasons that never lose their way to harvest”.

Blessings
Valerie

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