Today I am posting a link to a poem I read at this Sunday's Zoom Service, "A God with Heart". This poem by American poet e.e. cummings sings of heart connection that cuts across the forms of life and weaves them together in the spirit of love and joy. This morning I spoke of Divine Intimacy, the experience of being in close companionship, a heart connection that allows for spiritual love, an exchange between our human identity and the source of our life, as we cultivate a deepening intimacy with God in prayer and meditation. To discover God as Love, especially in overwhelmingly difficult times, we may need to drawer nearer. "Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you." (Bible: James 4:8).
Although in New Thought, we affirm our oneness with God and all of life, Divine intimacy implies some degree of space between us with our human limitations and God as the powerful realm of spiritual possibilities. Theological scholar and writer Evelyn Underhill makes the point, that the space that creates separation is necessary for love. It hit me, reading this poem, that "the wonder that's keeping the stars apart" is that separation. All creation exists because of space, which is separation, and yet... the connection remains. Love binds Creation's parts in the paradox of Wholeness we name God. (Susan Nettleton)