I heard a song yesterday that left me pondering. That’s not a word we hear much in the western world today. We typically use the term “think” or “think about” when we are talking about some event that gives us pause. But ponder provokes an image of the famous thinker statue. This idea of deep thought in which we might find our pose altered as our eyes drift into a trance and we lean in to really consider the thing.
My teenage son was randomly picking songs and playing them in the car yesterday, so I couldn’t tell you the name of the one song that struck me. In all honesty, I couldn’t tell you many of the words. It was just that at the time the words imprinted this image in my mind of God and a connection to Covid. Well sorta. Let me explain.
The song mentioned seeing someone special from behind glass. It talked about the pain of this separation. It suggested a lack of the use of natural human processes. The greatest one being touch. It was this idea of desiring someone so deeply, their close presence sensed, but this deep chasm of space keeping the two from becoming one. The inability to touch the ones we love is not only felt in the physical realm, but it also creates an ache within the emotional and spiritual places of our lives. It is a below the surface feeling that goes deep into the heart of us. The ache that comes from that denial is intense.
I think it is also unnatural. We are designed to be communal. We are designed to need one another’s touch, their conversation, their acceptance. When it is missing, we live counter to all of our physical, emotional, and spiritual design. Life feels disconnected. Life has this sense of being off center. Living this way for too long takes its toll on our well-being.
So how do we rectify that in a time where the entire world is living this way? We are left with no choice but to fix it or to suffer its negative consequences. Consider all of these areas: touch, feeling, and spirit. In what ways can you do small things to fill these places so that they are not left unattended? A smile given or received from a stranger, the touch on a shoulder or a full-blown hug, maybe a deep conversation. We cannot continue to disregard these things. They give us life and connection.
How does God fit into this story? Close your eyes and picture God looking down at us from his throne. Do you think he feels the same type of pain as us knowing that he loves us so greatly and we are often just outside of his reach? Does his heart ache like ours at the realization we avoid conversation with him? Or does he feel deep rejection at knowing we don’t accept him into our lives? I think these questions deserve a deep, reflective time of pondering.
- Blessings my friend
Monica Swank 