While I was working on an entirely different article for this newsletter, I received the gift of a labyrinth from a dear friend. The labyrinth alone would have been gift enough, but it brought with it a certain inspiration.
When experiencing a labyrinth, one typically expects to have a time of quiet reflection. As one walks a labyrinth, or traces it with the finger, one moves along a smooth and winding path towards its center. In the Christian use of the labyrinth the journey to the center is usually thought to represent a journeying toward a deeper sense of God’s presence within oneself. The path has its twists and turns, but it is no maze. There is no being misled into dead ends. The course to the destination is always assured. There are times when the winding circuit seems to carry one further from the center. However, one can proceed with a calm assurance that, steadily moving forward, the path leads one to the center of the labyrinth. All one needs to do is trust the path and move forward, peacefully and uninterrupted, along to the center.
Regarding this particular labyrinth gifted to me, atypical golden strands branch across the ceramic. Sometimes the strands run across the path, even through the center. In other spaces the strands run along the course of the path. The strands don’t interrupt your travel, but they interrupt the eye’s otherwise steady view of the path. Perhaps I can convince the artist to write an article one day about the technique that created these strands. For now, it is enough to know that the golden strands mark fractures in the labyrinth which the artist had to repair. While it seems to interrupt the journey, the strands are spaces of healing. Without the golden strands, the fragments of the labyrinth could not have been reconciled back to wholeness.
So, the original artist’s inspired vision, fractured and healed, has inspired my own. I see in this labyrinth places in my own life where the journey was disrupted by hurts that crossed my path. I recall times in my life where brokenness seemed to interrupt the journey. I see places where brokenness traveled with me along parts of the journey. Most importantly, I see a journey that, without healing, could not be completed. I find it especially fitting that an atypical, golden, healing strand runs through the center of the labyrinth. From where else would these healing, golden strands come? This particular labyrinth reminds me that the God who heals does not wait at the center to be found but instead spills out across the journey, bringing healing and wholeness all along the way.
My deepest thanks to the friend who crafted and healed this inspired and inspiring gift!
-Pastor Joe