No more hanging in the balance
It’s International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme is #BalanceforBetter. Here’s a poem that speaks to the “heart-written … inviolable being” of all God’s children, both woman and man, that “is moving us forward, keeping the balance for all time.”
Inspired by a Bible account of a woman referred to as a sinner washing Jesus’ feet (see Luke 7:37-50).
Down so low, wordless
yearning pulls her to him.
Perhaps the notion “I must rise”
nudges softly even as
she bends her head
over his feet in a released
humility – washing his feet with
urgent tears, drying them
with her hair in a love
flowing out for its own sake,
as the din of criticism, opinions,
judges, and victims
mutes.
Maybe emerging is a steady
inner gleam that she is safe,
stunningly, unalterably,
washed clean by Christ –
God’s pure living love for all, an
outpouring of good that heals.
I imagine welling up deep within
her a grace, a consecration
so poised to give, a genuineness,
such a natural trustfulness that it could
only be God-given,
Truth-anchored, Spirit-impelled.
On her feet now, upright in
this spring-fresh dignity
for herself and all she sees,
the din is quenched,
self-pity lifts,
condemnation is muzzled.
This heart-written, Spirit-breathing
spiritual manhood and womanhood,
inseparable, the inviolable being
of each woman, each man –
blessed children of God –
is moving us forward,
keeping the balance
for all time.
“I will gain a balance on the side of good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to overcome all error.”
– Mary Baker Eddy, “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 104