Almost two weeks ago, I quietly marked thirty-five years since that unforgettable day when, after several months of a gradual, increasing fascination with God, he came whooshing in with all the strength and intensity of a tidal wave, letting me know the uncontained, unconditional abundance of his love for me. Letting me know, too, that I was called to respond to Love with love, and to live my life as a proof of so much unmeasured love.
It seems remarkable that 35 years have already elapsed (and that it is already ten years since I wrote about my silver jubilee of call!)... But yes they have; and here I now am, in my coral anniversary year of call, contemplating my front garden.
I have never seen a coral reef in real life; never seen its multiple layers and connections, or its rootedness in the ocean floor... But I can see my front garden, every day! Thanks to my own shrubs, plus the friendly encroachment of my neighbour's, this garden has been a glorious, untrammelled tangle of aromatic, floral greenery over the past month or so. Branches have reached out, tendrils interwoven themselves around whatever is nearest, and layers have tumbled onto each other, with low-lying asters joining in the fun, so that it is impossible to tell where the choisya ends and the jasmine begins - let alone where each plant's roots begin and end. Yes, I know that at some point all this summertime fraternising will need to be cut back - but for now, I am enjoying it, and all those layers and tendrils and deep roots have been feeding my coral-tinted reflections of the past two weeks.
Looking back, I can see the interwoven layers of years spent living the consequences of this call, and of growing into it. Layer upon layer, formed by encounters and situations; people and places... by prayer and reflection, grace and growth, and new insights into scripture verses which are old friends... by the daily joy, and the daily challenge to be love; to be that living proof of Love, freely given, gladly received. Tendrils reaching out, in new, at times unexpected places and ways, weaving layers and insights inextricably together... And all the while, roots burrowing deep, irradicably, into God, the Source of all life and nourishment; the Source, too, of an indelible, primordial call which is at its heart changeless, however it might be expressed, or understood.
Back in 1990 I could barely imagine the year 2000, let alone 2025. I could never have imagined the woman I would become, in the unstable, confusing world we have become. But thirty-five years on, I know that my life has been irreversibly transformed by that experience of God's overwhelming, unlimited love, and the call not just to love back, but to love widely - and to make known the joy of that love. How and where, and with and for whom I live that call; how I grow in understanding its essence... today, tomorrow, next month and next year... all that lies ahead of me, along a variegated, multi-layered coral pathway, whose roots go down deep into God's marvellous soil...
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