Some friends were contemplating buying a new house and they were adamant the new house had to have a nice bathtub.
One home only had showers, so they got quotes on reconfiguring a bathroom to include a tub one could “soak” in.
As they were discussing this, another person asked, “Why would you ever want to soak in a bath? You sit in cold water with all your dead skin floating around. That seems gross to me.”
Well, that totally did in my idea of a bath as relaxation. Now I can’t get past the idea of icky stuff floating around. (Not that you care but it’s also why i struggle to float in the lake. You are floating in fish feces. Anyway . . .)
Prior to this, however, I loved nice bath.
St. John Vianney, a French priest known for his uncanny ability to connect with the spiritual realm, described prayer as “the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.”
So, take your idea of a bath.
And not one with fish feces. But one of love.
A giant space that is nothing BUT love.
That love washing over you.
You immersing yourself wholly and completely in that love.
Feeling it cover you, lifting you, washing away the things that bind you.
That is prayer.
Today, I invite you to take a bath. Yeah, that’s a little weird, but really, it would make a point.
Or – if you aren’t willing to go trek to the bathtub, what if you run a sink full of water.
Stand in front of the sink, immerse your hands.
As the water runs over them, engulfing them, imagine that water as Love. As God.
Covering you.
That simple stance is prayer. Then imagine being in that stance throughout your day. Immersing yourself in love.
When we are immersed in something, it becomes impossible to be broken from it.
Wouldn’t it be such a gift to be so immersed in God/Love that regardless what happens, we can not be separated from it?
Early Christian fathers and mothers knew of that immersion. We can too.
Grace and Peace,
Andrea