Noli me tangere...

'But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.  And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.  They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her,“Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.                                                                      John 20:11-18



In the dark the dawn comes and with angst I search. 
Exhausted, empty... fearing.... And he is not there.  
I am decimated.

A morning whisper in the dark longing...

My name... wordlessly, with a gaze from his soul into mine.

An embrace of heaven.
My name, who I am from before I was created in my mother's womb, 
known.
Enfolding me in his eyes, and I am naked and unashamed.  
I am seen and loved as only he sees me and loves me. 
The passionate love of mercy for misery, 
who looks at me and names me with the name I know that only he knows, 
that only he can pronounce...
"You are precious in my sight and honoured and I love you" Is 43:4

Gazing in him gazing in me, 
knowing joy in His beauty, 
his goodness, his love, 
his fidelity.

A gaze lasting an eternal moment

A smile, a tear, a kiss, a touch, a union....

That only heaven can hold.

"Noli me tangere... 

Noli me tangere..."

Not a rebuke, but a whispered promise of love within an embrace, 

Spoken in ineffable silence.

In tenderness

In longing
In holy peace.

A love to be known in heaven. 
A union only tasted here and in tasting deepens thirst.

Noli me tangere... A vow...
That I am his and he is mine,
That there is more,
that heaven will be our together home at the break of the eternal dawn,
but now...rest in me resting in you.

Desire. Wordless whisper,

"Rest in silence and solitude, 
and every moment wait at the open tomb for me to call your name.

For the momentary visit of eternal love.

Noli me tangere... Now...

 But desire me with all your heart, your tears, your broken alabaster jars,

 Your hunger and thirst.

One day we will be one

In heaven."

"My kiss from above is my promise.

I desire the day and I will never leave you alone....

For now, noli me tangere...."

"Trust.
Let go and give me your bare and empty hands, your waiting heart.
The soul I know cannot be filled by any other.

Open your arms, your soul... To the promise of heaven

To me in new ways, 

To be vulnerable and empty of the world, to love, waiting for me, always open to me. Trusting me.

I Will not leave you... But my love... Today, noli me tangere...

Until tomorrow and eternity."

A moment of Tabor at the tomb....
An ocean filling the emptiness carved to hold only him... For a moment...

A moment that cuts my heart more deeply, widened to be more empty and more open to more of him.

Noli me tangere... carves a space in me larger than myself, than my horizons, widening my heart to hold eternity Himself.