No matter how wide you stretch your fingers..

"There is hurt here that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry." Maybe this hurt isn't meant to be fixed. I'm sitting in the suffering because I've been told suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Amen.
Poetry heals. Holy poetry. I am reading through the Proverbs, one for every day of the month, so today I read 24. I'm wearing the proverbs like a layered dress of white fabric, letting God's love letter surround me and cover me, letting his wisdom unfold the darkness that is like a loose leaf piece of paper. It's covered in lies written out in black Sharpie. The lies have soaked through the other side of the paper, so that even if you put it up to a mirror the lies would seep into your perception. God is wrapping me up in truth and grace and righteousness, and like a warm washcloth on the forehead, his love is soaking into my clenched body, mind and soul.
mmm wisdom. So sweet, like sugar that melts in your mouth, like honey. Proverbs 24 says that wisdom to our soul is like the sweet taste of honey on our lips.

"No matter how wide you stretch your fingers your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Don't keep your nose up in the air like that you're just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him or else find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him. Rain will wash away everything if you let it. There will be days like this, when you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots will fill with rain and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you because there is nothing more beautiful than how the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it is sent away." - Sarah Kay "B"

Amen.