To You All Hearts Are Open

In this final full week of Advent, I want to share this illustration and reflection with you from Katie Gerdt, a fellow "Villager." It moves me to marvel all the more at the God we love - who loved us first. I hope it does the same for you. 
Seth+

"Every Sunday morning it feels like I get dressed and come to Village only to be reminded in the first minutes of the service how naked I am. Confronted by the gaze of God.

This past year I spent dangerous amounts of time in the prophetic books, where Yahweh proves He is the God who pays attention and sees everything. He fillets practices and lifestyles, dissecting and laying bare the hidden motives and desires. I think I would rather have the mountains fall on me. 

Shame is the place where we feel more known than loved. Where we are exposed, but don’t belong. Where information has extended beyond affection. Our raw vulnerability is unbearable unless we’re convinced of God’s loving posture and intentions.

But throughout the prophets, God exposes His own heart too: Unreservedly and almost pathetically He confesses His desire. The incarnation was God’s final and best proof that He still wants to be with us. The angel’s announcement to the shepherds in Luke 2 meant more to me this year than ever. God is pleased with people and comes in peace! We don’t have to be afraid. Jesus is sent to save us not because God doesn’t like us yet, but because He already does!

That is the kind of Surgeon I can entrust myself to.
That is the kind of Lover to whom I can give my heart."

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art…
-T S Eliot