what we ode, we could never repay...

it's a shame Christians are collectively narrow-minded on occasion.
i've been reading a little lately from the odes of solomon. it's an apocryphal "book" of the bible, and more gnostic than fundamentalists like, and as such, you won't be seeing it in the bible for a long, long time. and honestly, the way books are chosen for the bible, it doesn't really belong with them... but everyone should read it, because in places, it's fantastically beautiful, and abstract, and probably too open to interpretation in many parts to be safe for people who love division and doctrine and denomination more than they love the God of love and unity.
but that's not the point... the point is really just that i wanted to share this passage, because it's something i wish everyone could understand, because it's something I wish i could understand, instead of just reading and hoping for. but revelation can't be solicited, it comes as it will, from God... so my hope, my wish, my desperate plea for myself and humankind in general today is that we all receive a revelation of this particular passage, because if we all understood this a little better, we'd be in a better position to offer ourselves the kind of love that god offers us, the unconditional kind that doesn't ever really seem to exist.

1 As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the impulse of joy over what is lovely, and brings in of its fruits without restraint: 2 My joy is the Lord and my impulse is toward Him: this path of mine is excellent: 3 For I have a helper, the Lord. 4 He hath caused me to know Himself, without grudging, by His simplicity: His kindness has humbled His greatness. 5 He became like me, in order that I might receive Him: He was reckoned like myself in order that I might put Him on; 7 And I trembled not when I saw Him: because He was gracious to me: 8 Like my nature He became that I might learn Him and like my form, that I might not turn back from Him.

I'm gonna say it again, because it's so amazing... "Like my nature He became that I might learn HIM and like MY FORM."
we need to learn Christ, and in doing so, learn to love ourselves through Him.

or at least, that's the ideal.

wouldn't it be amazing, though, if it was also everyone's personal truth?
i hope it's possible,
despite all the evidence to the contrary most days.

check out the rest of the odes at http://www.goodnewsinc.net/othbooks/odesolmn.html