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LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
Therefore, I am going to persuade her,
lead her to the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her [Lit. "to her heart"].
*Hosea 11.1 (HCSB)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
God and I played together
Well beyond midnight last night.
At one point, I was rolling all over
the floor, laughing uncontrollably,
While He tickled me under my arms.
Then he said, “Brian, don’t let them
Bother you so, they are just jealous that you and
I have so much fun making
Love like this in
Here.
*Brian K. Wilcox
The poem might challenge many persons at two points. First, the idea of God and a person making Love. Second, God having fun.
Regarding God making love with us - indeed, all aspirations to love flow out of Love. We can make Love with God, and God with us, in many ways. Actually, heartfelt prayer is a form of this Loving.
The Divine, in Hosea, speaks of his Lover, his Wife, Israel. The word "persuade," in this context, denotes "seduce." "Wilderness" refers to the early days of their covenant, their marriage. She wondered away, her love grew cold, and she was unfaithful in adultery with other gods. He is speaking of a renewal of their vows and loving.
One thing true of all true Love is openness of heart. When you feel romantically, your heart is opening. Likewise, with God - to make Love with God is to experience openness of connection and sharing in feeling and thought between the Divine and you.
God, in a deeply, spiritually satisfying manner, knows how to seduce us. His seduction takes us from the arms of our false loves into True Love.
If a person is not in touch with his or her own being as of a sexual nature - even though that is only part of who a person is - then, he or she will likely struggle with experiencing the Divine as Lover, Beloved. Indeed, such sacred eroticism might be threatening or offensive to the person.
Certainly, by sexual I do not mean genital. Being sexual is being in touch with the sensual nature of Being. This is contrary to the sexual permissiveness and acting out accepted so widely in our society. Basically, to be truly erotic does not mean one has to be genital or sexual, as often defined in our society. The mere outgoing of the self in a deeply felt passion for the Divine is erotic, sensual, and the making of Love - or, better, the sharing of Love.
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