Meditate | Spiritual Transformation as Erosion by Water

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory” (Ezekiel 43:2).

“His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength” (Revelation 1:15-16).

“And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live…for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes” (Ezekiel 47:9).

“‘Living waters’ are often mentioned in the Word, and by them are meant truths that come to us from the Lord and are received. These are living, because the Lord is life itself…The Lord also…opens the spiritual parts of our mind, and imparts to us the affection of truth; and the spiritual affection of truth is the very life of heaven within us” (Apocalypse Explained 483 as quoted in What Would Love Do? By John Odhner and Sasha Silverman).

“ ...the earth is full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

The Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem released a statement a couple of weeks ago saying the policy of the General Church would not be changing with regard to women’s ordination. My meditation on the ideas in the passages above along with processing my own thoughts and feelings about the state of the General Church, of which I am a member, led me to writing the following poem as I considered the prospect and process of an organizational shift in the General Church that would allow for the ordination of women as priests. I offer it here for your own contemplation.

Erosion

I get that you’re afraid of erosion.
I’ve been there, it’s a terrifying feeling.
I was once so small, just me against the ocean,
Feet on ground I thought I could trust
But the ocean has a power and a purpose
I soon learned in one swift moment.
It sucked the ground out from under me!
Water rushing with thorough, relentless grace,
I wanted to run but I was spinning in stillness
Dizzying, sinking, being both rooted and ungrounded at once.
The deafening current had me surrounded and then just as quickly it was gone.
Feet sunk in sand I found I was still standing
I had survived and much later would realize
The ocean had left me blessed.

If it weren’t for erosion,
There would be no Grand Canyon!
The Colorado River in its eternal wake
Makes manifest buried layers’ history
Revealing the carved rock face washed bare and deepened.
The broad expanse from rim to Vishnu Schist a prophecy proclaims:
In the wake of erosion is made majesty!
We’ve been falling apart into beauty
On this flooded planet since we first began.

I have experienced new life growing within me,
Tissues stretched to the threshold of tearing,
Cells merged, split, changed, and multiplied;
I have lived through this inner erosion
And trust me: it makes you sick.
You lose all touch with normal
Suspended in the whirling grace of creation
There comes a point when the only choice
Is to give way with all your strength
To something once only felt that now must be fully known
And in the moment of birth be blessed once more
As the water ushers in its new form.

Would that we risk our lives for the holiness
That follows our spirit’s erosion!
Would that we hallow hollowness
Than bow to the fullness of fear.
Though rarely have we the pleasure of divine seeing
In those holy moments when things fall apart,
We can be sure the water never loses
And has a blessing to impart.

I see now when I stood at the ocean
The embrace was of its own;
The sound of many waters
A seed of wisdom sowed.
In this living rushing world of water
I have come to fear much more
The threat of stagnation
Than by erosion be transformed.

Chelsea Rose Odhner

Chelsea lives with her husband and three children in Willow Grove, PA. She enjoys making music, doing yoga, talking and writing about spiritual topics, and living life overall.