Filtered Love

I would not be able to bear
your piercing pure love
if you should show yourself
to me directly.

You seem to know this
and so filter
the blazing light of your kindness
through human voices
and flower faces.

A friend’s concern,
a child’s laugh,
a sparrow’s song
are the muted tones
and shaded light you use
to touch me.

Your filtered presence is building
a growing hope in me
that love might be a possibility.

Thank you
for all the gentle ways
you reach me.

——

They did not realize it was I who healed them.
I led them with
cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.
Hosea 11: 3b-4

From Heaven at my Door by Juanita Ryan