Day 21 The ABC's of Advent, Letter U

Since time began, the goal of life for mystics has been UNION with God. I don't pretend to be a mystic, but I've spent the last 20 years of my life running hard after the Divine Holy, and for at least 10 years, the Lilies were immersed in The Song of Solomon, the Bride of Christ, and the mystical journey. I believe we still are--it just looks different for us than we thought it would.

Song of Solomon is Scripture's expession of the soul's spiritual union with God. Listen to the imagery:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,
for your love is better than wine,
your anointing oils are fragrant,
your name is perfume poured out...

Draw me after you, let us make haste...

As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved...
with great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brough me to the banqueting house,
and his intention toward me was love.

All of the mystics of every religion knows there's more to this life than what appears around us. We are being drawn toward a Center, the Ground of everything, the Source of all life--like sperm rushing toward the egg, union with the Holy is the goal.

In the Holy, I find my Self, and I am made whole. Love is consummated. On the other side of the cross, on the other side of the pain and death, there is abundant joy and new life--and an understanding that "God" and I are so close, so joined, that there's no separating...the two have become one--and yet still two. I don't become lost in God; I become fuller in God.

For me, that's one of the beauties of the Christmas story. I'm not sure I "believe" that Mary was an actual physical virgin, or if the word "virgin" indicates that her relationship with the Holy didn't need mediating. She was one in herself, and she trusted her own inner knower and was able to follow her heart, trusting what she knew. Or perhaps she was a physical virgin. No matter to me anymore, BUT the story is still a miracle.

Heaven and earth kissed. Infinite and finite touched. And new life was born--something so radically new, that all of history has been changed.

The miracle to me is Mary's union with God at her tender young age. And Love's immense Life poured into her, and her simply waiting until the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

One of my favorite pictures in the Song is the Lover appearing as "an apple tree", and the beloved sitting in his shadow. As I worked on my journal this morning, I found my whole insides humming, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else But Me. For me??? I am quite sure that Mary was sitting under an apple tree when the angle approached her, and she conceived.

Even the apple tree has been redeemed! Selah!