It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do,
and shudder to know the taint
in our own selves,
that awe cracks the mind’s shell
and enters the heart:
not to a flower,
not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.
– Denise Levertov

To move into 2021 with painstaking awareness of the reality of our world and ourselves, if we’re honest, means that we know something beyond ourselves and our world is needed. Too much makes us shudder, and the flip side, there is too much beauty upon which to wonder. Levertov offers that we’re not alone in this moment. In fact, beckoning us is an invitation by God, emanating from the awe that “cracks” us open for a relationship with God, the one to be trusted. We have the “Word” – the incarnation of God’s love expressed in Jesus Christ – that opens up our hearts, minds, and bodies for the ongoing work and abiding presence of the Spirit.

While we await and enter into the changes of our country and world – vaccines, new US President, changing social engagements, and continued unrest – through all of this and your own personal circumstances, may you know the power of that love expressed in the midst of our world, not in spite of our world.

We at Selah would like to extend our hope for a year filled with new awakenings and new courage to face the worst and the best and everything in between of 2021. 

– Mary Pandiani, Executive Director