blood and light

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.
~excerpt from the Billy Collins poem, "On Turning Ten"

I have the best of both worlds.

I know what it is to bleed upon the sidewalks of life, and I know what it is to believe that my innards are filled with an incandescent light.

There are some days, when I truly believe that my heart pumps this shining light through sparkling, mirror like veins....

....and there are other days when I am all too aware that I am only flesh and blood; that I will bleed the same red, sticky blood that we all bleed when we fall and tear our skin.

Either way, on either day, I would willingly tear this skin for those I love.

I think Christ must have felt this too. Why else would He have allowed himself to be torn asunder?

Christ knew what it was to love. He understood that mysterious intersection where soul meets body and He was not afraid. Christ's love for you, for me, and for all mankind, compelled Him to tear open his own skin, and to release both blood and light.

Somewhere, within each one of us, this light, God's love for us, pulses in rhythm with our own beating hearts.

Yes, I am flesh and blood; but I am also infused with the eternal light of God's love. Cut me and I will most certainly bleed; but don't be surprised if I also blind you with light.

...blood and light

....that mysterious intersection where soul meets body

........we are always and forever, shining in God's love.