Reflection
Hearts of stone, hearts of flesh
<br />
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;<br />
I will remove from you your heart of stone <br />
and give you a heart of flesh. <br /></p><p>
The prophet is speaking out in exile, and this chapter offers a vision of restoration and the new creation of Israel. Hearts of stone will become hearts of flesh. Today we see the heart as the seat of the emotions, but here it means the will, and the spirit means the whole inner life if a person. A heart of stone means the rebellious part of us, a heart walled up in spite of all of God’s entreaties. A creative intervention, grace, is needed for the heart to become a heart of flesh, open to God and others. It’s an amazing picture of transformation isn’t it? </p><p>
Recently I took part in a poetry retreat via Zoom. Writers were reading their own poetry and I was swept along on a tide of life-giving words. One speaker, Helen Wilcox talked about George Herbert’s devotional poetry and I found ‘The Flower’ incredibly moving. The Second stanza reads:<br /><br />
Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart <br />
Could have recover’d greennesse? It was gone <br />
Quite under ground; as flowers depart <br />
To see their mother-root, when they have blown; <br />
Where they together <br />
All the hard weather, <br />
Dead to the world, keep house unknown. <br /><br />
And then the sixth stanza:<br /><br />
And now in age I bud again, <br />
After so many deaths I live and write;<br />
I once more smell the dew and rain, <br />
And relish versing; O my onely light, <br />
It cannot be <br />
That I am he <br />
On whom thy tempests fell at night. <br /></p><br />
<p>What an amazing description of transformation, by God’s grace, from shrivelled up and living underground (which has been the experience of ‘le confinement’ for many people) to being fully alive to God’s world. </p><p>
While I’m in poetic mode, let me offer one of mine: <br />
Falling<br />
There are <br />
worse things <br />
than falling <br />
not falling <br />
for one. <br />
Raindrops fall <br />
on the thirsty ground <br />
and sunlight <br />
falls on your upturned face. <br /><br />
So, if it’s not so bad to fall <br />
why not jump, <br />
and land <br />
in a heap <br />
in your very own soul? <br /></p><p>
‘Falling’ is going to mean different things for each of us. It could be loss, failure, powerlessness…. We hate this falling, but it as at the heart of Gospel. It is the essence of cross and resurrection, and is often the way in which our heart of stone is turned into a heart of flesh.</p><p>
I wonder how God works in your heart to bring about transformation?<br />
Bob Whorton</p>