Your heart is so big. The capacity within it; seemingly endless. It is filled with caverns, rooms, channels and layers. Stories and ideas, songs and poems, memories soaked in pain yet dipped in beauty. Whispers and giggles and shrieks and howling and melodies and moans all resonate in the halls and leak through on the wind. I stand, gazing at this labyrinth that is you. And there is an adventurous part of me that aches to explore its depths; to know every variety of yourself within. I approach, grimacing as I reach out one hand, and hesitantly knock on the gate of its great walls. My breath is held; hoping for acceptance, dreading rejection. I know you may not wish to, but you must share all this with someone. Have you heard what happens to those who refuse to open their doors? To trust? They barricade themselves in this endless mansion and become lost within. They are alone. And when they walk into a dark room and the door closes behind them, no one is there to hear their cries; to open the door and pull them back into the light. That is why I have been sent to you. The keeper of your heart has searched me and known my ways. He has deemed me not only worthy of your trust, but necessary. So please, let me in. Open the gates. As each second ticks by, slower than the last, I begin to fear I have been shunned. This is my calling. My purpose. My own heart has finally had the doors flung open, the walls torn down, and the contents are flooding out; a raging hurricane of myself finally set free. I need somewhere for that flood of me to go. If I try to hold it in any longer, I will burst: shatter. Please! Take my love! I will trade you. I beg you for your burdens. I long for your loneliness. I will share your scars and love your longing. Let. Me. In. At last, movement. The rusted gates groan in protest as they are forced open after so many years of stoic rejection: standing unmoved. They grate far enough apart for me to squeeze through and dart inside. I am met by endless corridors, vast hallways lined with doors leading to every emotion, experience and thought you have ever dwelt on. Golden rays of sunshine behind one door, a forest full of giggles and children and innocence. I run and laugh with those sweet young faces, caressed by the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. Behind the very next door, I am plunged into a blackness deeper than a clouded night. I fall into a deep pit, landing on jagged rocks and shards of broken hopes. Crouched in the corner, trembling and alone, with tear streaks down their face, is you. My heart swells in my chest, and I know: this is the moment for which I have been prepared. I kneel before you, taking your cold hands in my own. Our Father wants you to come home now. Follow me. You are terrified; I see it in your frantic glances. But here, I have something that will help. I am entrusting you with my own heart, here in the depths of your own. Let the hope I have received be a light in this darkness. Let my trust and vulnerability inspire your own. I couldn't hold it back anymore even if I wanted to. And with that, the last piece of my wall crumbled down. An outpouring of love, peace, joy and hope flooded the pit, filling it to overflowing. We sailed out into the sunlight, hand in hand. As we ran into the meadow, our eyes looked up and locked with the Father’s. And as we were swept into his embrace, our hearts were made whole for the first time. I glanced at you, my kin, hopefully expectant of the life we would share: in the light.
