Advent is here. This is a season of waiting, of listening, and of waiting. It is now winter. It is a time to slow down and take stock. I came across this meditation in Alan Jones’ book Common Prayer on Common Ground and thought it would be good to share with you. Jones comments that it is from the Jewish mystical tradition. It is a gentle reminder of who we come from, the brokenness in our lives, and who provides the means to heal that brokenness.

“In the beginning before there was any beginnings and endings, there was no place that was not already God! And we call this unimaginable openness Ain Soph - Being - without end. Then came the urge to give life to our world and to us. But, there was no place that was not already God. So Ain Soph breathed in to make room, like a father steps back so his child will walk to him. Into the emptiness Ain Soph set vessels and began to fill them with divine light, as a mother places bowls to pour her delicious soup. As the light poured forth, a perfect world was being created.

Think of it! A world without greed and cruelty and violence! But then, something happened. The bowls shattered. No one knows why. Perhaps the bowls were too frail? Perhaps the light was too intense? Perhaps Ain Soph was learning. After all, no one makes perfect the first time. And with the shattering of the bowls, divine sparks flew everywhere! Some falling back to Ain Soph, some falling, falling, trapped in the broken shards to become our world and us.

Though this is hard to believe, the perfect world is all around us, but broken into jagged pieces, like a puzzle thrown to the floor, the picture lost, each piece without meaning until someone puts them back together again. We are that someone. There is no one else. We are the ones who can find the broken pieces, remember how they fit together and rejoin them. This is the repairing of the world - the mending of creation. In every moment, with every act, we can heal our world and us. We are all holy sparks dulled by separation.

But when we meet, and talk, and eat, and make love, when we work and play and disagree with holiness in our eyes, seeing Ain Soph everywhere, then our brokenness will end, and our bowls will be strong enough to hold the light and our light will be gentle enough to fill the bowls. As we repair the world together, we will learn that there is no place that is not God!”