The nature of God is often declared in words of power, wonder and glory. God's multifaceted nature is bequeathed to us as our creation in the image of God. How marvelous to be powerful, right and mighty. But God also gifts our very nature with creativity, compassion, love, self-emptying - it is in our make-up.
If God's nature is to self-empty, then so is ours. We struggle with the giving up of things, how much more we struggle with the giving up of ourselves especially when it reaches to our core. Today I came across a section from Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is, p. 234 that spoke to me.
"Within the Christian story it is possible to see that divine self-emptying in the incarnation and passion of Christ is not an uncharacteristic divine action. Rather, this historical moment discloses the pattern of Sophia-God's love always and everywhere operative. Divine freely self-giving love did not begin with God's personal entering into human history but is so typical that it plays out at the dawn of creation itself."
The butterfly's cocoon is wound up so tightly in itself, it doesn't know (mentally) what is coming. But time reveals the deeper instinctual knowing that lies within of how it can break through and spread it's wings to fly. How do I claim the power of God to empty myself so that I am ready to receive and move into what I dared not believe was even possible - a transformation and resurrection into new life.
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