T.18.VIII.9-13. Jesus: “Still waiting at the imagined barrier you built against it, the Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, and once welcomed, It will come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere!
The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them, where once a desert was! And everyone you welcome in will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart alone as they had come. The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you.
Under love’s beneficence your little garden will expand, reaching out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone. Go out and find them now, for they bring your Self with them to you! Lead them gently to your quiet garden, and receive their blessing there. Thus will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms locked away from love, nor leaving you alone inside of yours. And you will recognize your Self, and see your little garden gently transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the love of its Creator shining upon it.
The holy instant is your invitation addressed to love, inviting it to enter your bleak and joyless kingdom, and transform it into a garden of peace and welcome. Love’s answer is inevitable! It will come because you came to it, without the body, and interposed no barriers to interfere with love’s glad coming.
In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for everything, you will receive it. And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven, straight into Heaven. No part of love calls on the whole in vain. No Son of God remains outside His Fatherhood!
Be sure of this; real love has entered your special relationship, and entered fully, even at your weak request! You may not recognize that love has come, because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold against your brother. And you and he will not be able to give love welcome separately. You could no more know God alone than He knows you without your brother. But together you could no more be ‘unaware of love’ than love could know you not, or fail to recognize itself in you.
You have reached the end of an ancient journey, not realizing yet that it is over. You are still worn and tired, and the desert’s dust still seems to cloud your eyes and keep you sightless. Yet He Whom you welcomed, has come to you and would welcome you. He has waited long to give you this. Receive it now of Him, for He would have you know Him!
Only a little wall of dust still stands between you and your brother. Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden love has prepared for both of you!”