On Earth as it is in Heaven

On earth as it is in heaven.

That line has always gotten me. It’s the point in the prayer where I have, since a child, thought about what that line between heaven and earth is—and so many images have come to mind, images that slip into my dreams and into my writings. Is the line that moment the sky opens up on a highway, and the sky and tree line become distinct?  Or the first steps onto a beach, clumsy, enchanted, the sound of the surf entering deep into my head? The taste of something truly delicious and taking time to savor it, really tasting what’s good? Or perhaps the moment of understanding between loved ones, a feeling present?

There are too many to describe, and even words fail—you know these moments because many of you have experienced them, even just one.  And for the most part we can all experience them if we find a way, given who we are as individuals, to see what’s before our eyes: the ones in our head and the ones in our barely perceptible self, that soul eye.

That requires an incredible amount of energy, a willingness to be humble and humiliated and willing to surrender desire sometimes, in favor of the bigger thing, of the greater beauty. Such an excruciating and exquisite thing, all at once, this search for God, who is always searching for us.