I was pondering the Hebrew letter “mem” (which I shared about in my post The Water, the Womb (The Hebrew Letter “Mem”)), it represents the womb. A teaching I heard several years back touched on the womb’s connection to the waters and being surrounded in the water. This watery place is one of safety and protection, a temporary place of dwelling during a shift.
This then connected to Noah and the ark and Moses as an infant in his basket. In both instances, they were held within the waters in a place of safety and protection, and almost an incubation while something new came forth. This brought to mind a vision I had years ago while birthing the word for a silk from a sister ministry.
{vision} A deep ocean in the darkness of night hours. The water is warm and gently lapping around me as I am suspended, floating in the midst of the deep. A place of vulnerability and complete trust, yet I feel completely safe knowing that, though unseen, I am in His hands. The moonlight reflects on the water like sparkling jewels and a warm breeze brushes my face like a caress. It’s a place of total surrender. I’m overtaken in the depths of His love. His love is like a tangible force. I can feel it filling in my cracks and wounds, bringing healing and restoration. Like the art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold so the formerly broken places now are the most beautiful. So His love is filling my hurts with a healing beauty that will makes me even more radiant. His love glowing from my full heart.
This place of surrendered healing is one that is accessible to us all. We have simply to yield to Spirit. As a woman who has struggled with my weight most of my adult life, one of my favorite things about water is how you become weightless. When I consider that in conjunction with the with being “held” by the water of God’s presence it brings to mind that weightless unburdening that scripture calls us to (Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 55:22).
This weightless resting in the flow is such a beautiful parallel to operating in the Spirit. There’s a yielding, a releasing of control, and a movement that surrounds you that you connect and come into alignment with (rather than trying to force it to move the way *you* think it should). So may we be safe and unburdened in the water of His presence, may we be saturated and healed by the Spirit, and may we find refreshing and wholeness as we are “held” lovingly by the One who loves us most.
- Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG) Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
- Psalm 55:22 (NLT) Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
- Genesis 6:18, 7:16-18 (VOICE) But I will make a pact with you, Noah— a covenant agreement. To survive, you and your family —you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives—must go into the ark. All those in the ark, males and females of all living flesh, went in just as God had told them to do. And the Eternal One shut them all in for the duration of the flood. The deluge continued for 40 days on the earth. The waters kept rising until they lifted up the ark so it floated safely over the land;
- Exodus 2:1-6 [Commentary included] (VOICE): One day a man and woman—both from the tribe of Levi—married. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that her son was healthy and beautiful, she feared for his safety…she took a basket made of reeds, sealed it with tar and pitch, and placed her baby boy in it. Then she wedged the basket among the reeds along the edge of the Nile River. [The Hebrew word for the “basket” that Moses’ mother prepared is the word used in Genesis 6:14 for the “ark” that preserves Noah and his family from a watery judgment.]…Pharaoh’s daughter noticed the basket wedged among the reeds and wondered what it might contain…When Pharaoh’s daughter opened the basket, she found the baby boy. He was crying, and her heart melted with compassion.