Abiding in Love
The Heart Nebula — photo taken by Laurel Pepin
Dear Soul Friends,
In the last week of Advent, we light the candle of love. It is the week when we are invited to rest in the heart of God and reflect on the great mystery of holy love.
A few years ago, I received an email with the above photo from my friend, Laurel, that read, “Susan, look at this! I did it. I finally got a photo of the heart nebula.” To be honest, I had no idea there was a heart nebula, but I was astonished anyway. What a photo! It was an invitation to be amazed, delighted, and awed by the gift of creation. It took my breath away.
When I asked Laurel about the image, she explained that it took two years for her to capture it. First, she needed to reconfigure one of her old cameras with a sensor to receive an expanded spectrum of light, including infrared, and replace her lens with a telescope. Then she drove to the right open space on the right night with the right weather and pointed her lens at the exact time that the nebula would be visible. Not able to see the nebula with her own eyes, she had to wait to see the photos on her computer to see if her efforts paid off. When they didn’t, she tried again until she captured this remarkable photo. When I asked her if it would be okay to share the photo with all of you, she said, “Yes! Yes! I want people to fall in love with creation! It’s a miracle.”
It is life changing to see an image like this. It offers us the opportunity to see the vastness of existence and invites us to wonder about who we are and how we want to live within the mystery and energy of life.
One day when I was twelve years old, the Apollo 8 mission sent home the first images of earth floating in space. I remember being with my mother watching the tiny television in her bedroom. My mother was sewing and I was sitting on the floor. My father walked in and stood shaking his head in wonder. Who knew mother earth looked like that? We’d all seen globes, but this was different. This was earth hanging in outer space floating in the vast universe. It was shocking and emotional, mystical and wondrous. Did earth really look like that? Do the stars have a message of love for us? Is there a bigger story that we have yet to understand?
As I sat gazing at Laurel’s photo, I had a similar experience. Could we literally dwell within the heart of God? Is that what Jesus meant when he told his followers in the Gospel of John to abide in his love? In the original Greek, the word for “abide” is meno, meaning to stay, dwell, remain, or continue in a way of being that rests in Holy Love. It implies that by dwelling in Holy Love, we are at home and held in the heart of God. Love radiates out to all creation flowing within us and beyond us. It is cosmic and eternal.
As you move through the days of this coming week, it is my hope that you might take a moment for stillness. Gaze at this image of the heart nebula. Listen for its message. Let it speak to you.
May you be encircled and surrounded by the energy and light of sacred love.
Deep peace to you,
Susan
