This is a story that has no beginning. No end. It is a story
that I hold within me and yet, it is a story that climbs
beyond me. I can feel its contours, its colors and its songs
aching for words. And I know that a story needs words, but
somehow, I cannot fit this story into the vessels of words.
It spills over and threatens to rewrite itself. Because it is
a story that holds infinite gestures.
It is a story of a land. A Land that holds within it the
beauty of all other lands. An ancient Land. A new Land. A
Land that is crowded and a Land that has infinite space. A
Land that wrestles with its inhabitants. An intense Land that
gives its people no rest. But peace it gives. Deep, silent,
holy peace that rises after the battles. Battles for the
Land. For the Land. For the Land. For the Land. The Land that
turns in on itself in wrenching sobs of suffering and then
unfurls its arms to offer redemption.
And it is a story of people who ache for the Land. Who kiss
its soil. And run to immerse themselves in its flowing
waters. A people who run after its fire even though they know
they might be burned. People who cry endlessly into its white
stones and cling to the promise that lies beyond the Wall.
One day they will be allowed back into the Palace. The Palace
of the Land.
The people build homes on shaking ground. They leave behind
everything they have known to come to the Land. Even while
the plush velvet rooms of their birthplace beckon to them:
Come back to security. To space. To reality.
They know. They know it the way they know the shapes of their
tears after each attack. The silence. The helplessness. They
know the Land needs them. Loves them. Speaks to them through
it explosions. And the people hear the Land. They press their
ears to its whispers of hope and cling to its cries of pain.
For this is the gift that He gives them.
Their Father, their King, holds them through the Land. The
Land on which they can live His will. The people have
children who fill the Land with laughter. And the Land
encircles the children's laughter with its purity. Because it
is a Land of promise and will not let its people down.
