Friday after Ash Wednesday

You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy;
you have set my feet in an open place.
Psalm 31:8

As the morning sunshine splashes across the pages of my prayer book, the pathway of the light passes through a bottle of water. The beams refract, scattering rainbow highlights across the pages of the psalm I am reading.

As the spectrum of color dances across the words, illuminating my prayer, I am reminded of the possibility of movement. White light is disassembled and reassembled as its wavelengths move through space, resulting in colors that the human eye can perceive–as well as frequencies outside the human visible spectrum. Sometimes, movement is not obvious.

God has gifted me with many kinds of movement–from touching and breathing and running, to the neurons firing across synapses in my brain, to my soul reaching, to my eyes perceiving light.

When I feel stuck, when my heart seems paralyzed by dread, when sadness traps words of love in my throat, there is another way. I can open myself to the Light.

And when I do, again and again I am able to see that God has set my feet in an open place, and invites me to dance with compassion, mercy, humility, and grace.