Mystical Union
I do not know from where you may be reading this meditation, but here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia the weather is absolutely beautiful. The low humidity, cool gentle breeze and diamond-like sky have made my heart seemingly burst with Truth, Beauty and Love.
Reverend Forest P. Reynolds, a gentleman preacher—having long ago moved on to glory—was very much in my awareness and presence as I walked this morning.
A friend of my parents, I vividly recall the day he sat at my kitchen table listening intently while I unburdened, what I believed at the time, were my unpardonable sins. Believing myself lost in pain, fear, and in the grip of darkness and death, I spilled my guts. Never once did he bat an eye in derision nor raise an eyebrow in disdainful judgement. He was completely present as God’s tangible Grace when I most needed Her Light, Life and Love. Had he not shown such genuine and authentic acceptance, I do not know how long I would have continued walking in suffering and hell.
He and many other beloveds have played and continue to play an essential role in my life as God extending Herself to Himself—the calling for all of us, one to another.
Paul explains it this way,
From one man he made every nation living on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the limits of their territories and the periods when they would flourish. God did this so that people would look for him and perhaps reach out and find him although in fact, he is not far from each one of us, ‘for in him we live and move and exist.’ Acts 17:26-28
Or to paraphrase Alexandre Dumas,
All are one, and one are all, eternally unified in Truth.
This mystical union, or if you will—non-dual theology—is ever present throughout scripture whether literal, allegorical or both in nature.
For example, in Ephesians 5:28-30 . . .
This is how husbands ought to love their wives—like their own bodies, for the man who loves his wife is loving himself. Why, no one every hated his own flesh! On the contrary, he feeds it well and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does the Messianic Community because we are parts of his Body.
. . . and John 15:5 . . .
I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who stay united with me, and I with them, are the ones who bear much fruit; because apart from me you can’t do a thing.
. . . additionally, Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 goes to great lengths to express . . .
But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body.
Whatever your spiritual practice may be, my hope is that you have at least one person in your life to whom you can turn for peace, healing and comfort. Perhaps one day you may, in turn, be that one person for someone else in compassionate acts of endless reciprocity.
Thank you, Rev. Reynolds.
