Unending Love (by Rabbi Rami Shapiro)
We are loved by an unending love.
We are embraced by arms that find us
even when we are hidden from ourselves.
We are touched by fingers that soothe us
even when we are too proud for soothing.
We are counseled by voices that guide us
even when we are too embittered to hear.
We are loved by an unending love.
We are supported by hands that uplift us
even in the midst of a fall.
We are urged on by eyes that meet us
even when we are too weak for meeting.
We are loved by an unending love.
Embraced, touched, soothed, and counseled,
Ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices;
Ours are the hands, the eyes, the smiles;
We are loved by an unending love.
This poem was shared by one of my chaplain colleagues in a brief prayer and mediation service at the hospital where I work. He was caught up in emotion as he read it and I was caught up in the words as I heard them. It’s what I long for and maybe others do to – an everlasting, unending love.
That there is a God of love.
That there is a love I can trust in.
That I am guided, loved, embraced whether I realize it or not, and sometimes even forget because of my own spiritual amnesia or the pain I’m experiencing.
It reminds me of that passage in the OT that says, “Underneath are the everlasting arms of God.” (Deut. 33:27) It’s not about believing in a mythic God up there in the sky anymore, far removed from the world and who intercedes from time to time. It’s about trusting in a (the) presence of love and knowing that somehow, in someway I am held and upheld by love in my life and this world and the next.
Leave a Reply