Bearer of brokenness, Thread of Life

Llannerchwen, where I made my retreat last month, as I have done for many years, is intensely familiar - and yet always new. Every time I go, I walk on well-known paths in woods which are not strangers to me; watch the sunset from a well-loved vantage point, and gaze on views which are woven into my journey. I revisit favourite places, where I have encountered God in past years... and also find myself on new paths, discovering new vistas, and new directions and meeting-points. And in between each visit, the seasons bring their own changes. Trees fall, or are felled; new life plants itself and springs up; the landscape changes: and thus, the familiar is altered, bringing the surprise of new encounters, and their own new insights and gateways into prayer. 

And so it happened, on a familiar walk on the first day, when I came across this tree, its trunk broken near its roots, miraculously being held and saved from total collapse by a far more slender tree, bending and bowed - but unbroken - under its weight. 

And a prayer surged and softly sang within me...

Jesus, Lamb of God, bearer of our sins... of our weakness, our brokenness, our fragility, our needs...
Have mercy on us, heal us, carry us

A couple of days later I again walked past the tree, this time pausing to gaze more closely at its fractured, gaping base, marvelling at how everything seemed to be held together by a few splintered threads. And then I looked up, following its trunk to its branches, up into an abundance of green leaves interspersed with those of neighbouring trees, rustling in the breeze. Shattered and broken it may be... but the tree was so definitely still alive! 

Jesus, Thread of Life
Jesus, Bread of Life... nourish us, sustain us, hold and support us, and fill us with your life

I passed by the tree one more time a few days later, and this time I noticed what had escaped me before - the sprigs of new life bursting forth at the lower end of its trunk, only inches from its brokenness. New life, from what could have been death! New life, and a future filled with hope, thanks entirely to a slender tree, prepared to bear and bend.

Heart of Jesus, our Resurrection and our Life
Fill us with yourself, bring new life to our wounds and our deadness...

In these dark and unstable times, when so much feels fragmented and wounds gape open, where and how do you find support and nourishment, threads and signs of hope and new life? And how can you - how can we - be bearers of one another's weakness and brokenness, and threads of that life and hope which our poor world so desperately needs?