Across the United States, we have met the second day of spring with snow and very real wintry conditions. Two oppositional truths existing simultaneously. As we move from one truth to another, there is often a space where they overlap and both have life. Sometimes a season is both winter and spring. Sometimes our souls are both tired and hopeful. Sometimes a relationship is both distant and near.
Paradoxes fill faithful lives. The impulse is to supply answers. Like flowers that bloom surrounded by snow, there is not always understanding. Genesis 1:3 states: “Then God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” The narratives of divine creation remind us that God has surrounded us with truths beyond understanding. Yet in these truths we live and move and have our being. The expression of creativity and art lead us into the beauty of many truths and we are invited to find rest in them. Enjoy this poem:
sometimes the night wakes in the
middle of me.
and i can do nothing
but
become the moon.
-nayyirah waheed