A Hint of Heaven

A Reflection on the Gospel for January 13, 2019:
​The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

15 As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, 16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."

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​There are moments when the barrier between here and heaven effaces and thins, and the weight of heaven falls through the dividing membrane into the mundane. And these moments almost always happen on the heels of a surrender, a submission, a giving up, and an offering over.
 
People realized there was something hinting of heaven happening in the desert. Maybe this man John was it, the Anointed One, the Messiah dripping with the oil of eternity. But Saint John the Baptist does not take the honour they offer him and draw it into his own ego. He gives the honour up and offers it over to one who is both his cousin and his Creator.
 
Jesus has spent years working with wood, hammer, and nails. The smell of sawdust and sweat. The satisfaction of seeing something made by your hands. But the time had come to leave that behind and start the path that led to a different wood, hammer, and nails. The redeeming of the created at the greatest cost. Salvation made by the stretching out of hands. And He starts this sojourn with a submission: coming to John in the river, to be lowered under the water. And as He rises up to the surface and prays, all Heaven breaks loose.
 
The Son breathes the air.
The Spirit comes to rest.
The Father speaks a blessing.
 
Me, I surrender. 
 
Over and over again. 
Because there’s always more to give up.
But so grateful my Beloved doesn’t show it to me all at once.
Always only offering it over to Him after struggling to keep it, to coddle it.
Finding each time the way through
To having the weight of the joy of Heaven fall on me
Is to throw the caution of control to the wind
And to simply surrender.

Noreen Smith

"[T]he way through to having the weight of the joy of Heaven fall on me,
​is to throw the caution of control to the wind and to simply, surrender."

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