Look out upon the tree
full-leafed in summer.
Dense foliage, myriad shapes and shades of green.
But here, a space, a way through,
and, glimpsed in the distance,
another world –
a house, fields, an unknown life.
Listen to the music,
one liquid note flowing after another.
Chords of harmony
resonating and filling the air.
Punctuated though by
a space between the notes.
Empty of sound.
Just a crack between the keys.
Slip down the crack, glide between the leaves.
In a moment of time,
pass through into another world,
lofty, still, timeless.
Experience the spaciousness.
Drink in the immensity of the silence.
Immerse yourself in the stillness.
Stay here awhile – renew your true self.
Untrammelled by sights and sound,
find room to grow, stretch out.
Explore new directions,
a glimpse of eternity between the notes.
You must return to daily life,
to its busyness and noise,
but don’t forget the way into true Life,
into the spaces between.
And so it was for Jesus the Christ.
No wonder they failed to eradicate him.
Crucifixion, with all its shame,
its degradation, its pain,
was on the surface,
just in the physical world.
No earthly cruelty can reach that space between.
Victorious Lord, enable us to find the spaces between,
until that day when we pass through for the last time,
forever to dwell in the dimension of your love.
Included by permission of the author, the Rev. Ros Murphy
