The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season; you open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. (Psalm 145:15-16)
When I drop my daughter at the stables, I look across the wetlands to the dunes. Between the weathered, flattened dunes are two perky dunes side by side. For all the world, they look like a young woman’s breasts. I prayer-dream a woman lying across the landscape. Her hair streams like kelp into the sea; her breasts rise among the dunes; her womb encompasses the fertility of the wetlands.
I remember Biblical passages where God is compared to a womb, a mother, and the giver of all good things in due season. I think of how the wetlands provide an abundance of food in each season: fish, frog, bird, snake, shrimp, reed. I remember that this land – earth, sea and sky – has been feeding people with generous hand for tens of thousands of years. I remember that I am formed from the earth, and I live only because of the earth’s continual nourishment. I am brain, muscle, sinew, fat, fed by egg, berry, salt, kelp: I am formed and fed by the land. We are all connected, and I praise God, source of all life, mother and nourisher of us all.
Perhaps next time you do the Warrnambool-Port Fairy ride, you’ll pause at the top of the bike path at Mahogany Farm and notice those little twin dunes. You’ll smile, perhaps, at the vision of a woman lying in the landscape; but perhaps you’ll also remember God’s maternal presence and generous hand. Maybe you’ll also wonder, with me, how this generosity might be nurtured, protected and shared. Ω
What is this? Lent is the 40 days, excluding Sundays, before Easter. Traditionally it is a time of reflection and pilgrimage. To help you on this journey, Sanctuary has put together daily stories and images from people in the congregation which are focused on God in this place. Why this theme? Read this! #Lent2023. Our Spiritual Geography © Sanctuary, 2023. Sanctuary is based on Peek Whurrong country. Full acknowledgement of country here.
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