The Parent Who Never Left: The Shekhinah
Malkuth of Netzach Day 28 of 50 · Presence within Victory
The Parent Who Never Left: The Shekhinah
The twenty-eighth saying of the Living Christ:
Where can any go that they will not find God? As the soldiers led our people out into exile, the Shekhinah walked with us. She held us together in Egypt, and showed the way through the desert. She stayed with us in Babylon, never leaving.
The Divine Presence is never absent, though sometimes she is hidden, inviting us to seek her out like a mother playing with her children. She does not withdraw, but knocks on the door every Sabbath and New Moon, reminding us to invite her in.
Eyes clouded with fear, anxiety, grief, or pain cannot see clearly. She is there, holding our hand through it all. No matter how far she may feel from us, she is as close as our own breath.
The Shekhinah does not leave, even when some turn away.
A people may be driven from their soil, but they cannot be driven from the Spirit. You may lose your home, but you can not lose the Divine Presence that is always with you. When you are wounded, it is easy to say, “My wickedness has exiled me from God.” When hateful, it is easier to say, “Your wickedness has exiled you from God.” God forbid. None are exiled from the presence of God. Not one. Even the fallen deceiver turned their back to cast a shadow over the Light, and fell like lightning to the ground.1
Do not convince yourself that God has abandoned anyone. Remember the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to find the one that is lost.2 All life is precious to God. The father of lies seeks to make people feel lost, abandoned, and alone. It is easier to accept his lies when people feel they have no other choice.
Do not rob yourself of life more abundantly. When people feel alone, they push forward without rest and strive without joy. The soul who believes it is orphaned or forgotten refuses the support of the earth, their neighbors, and the Shekhinah. Worse still, they deny that support to others. The Accuser sings the song of the lone wanderer, masking the hands that fed you and the earth that bore your weight. Aloneness is a wound striving cannot heal.
Return to the waiting arms of the Shekhinah, and she will wipe the clouds from your eyes so you can see all those who have never left you.
Embrace indwelling faithfulness. Behold the Presence of the Shekhinah in every day life. She does not endure in the highest heavens far away from us, but in the soil, in the faces of the suffering, the persistence that endures winter, through the dryness of drought, and exile.
She heals the root of your longing. She reveals that the voice calling you to endure was never a stranger’s voice. It is the Breath within your breath, persisting in you as you persist. It is the indwelling presence of the Holy One living God through us, enduring in us as we endure, persisting in us as we persist.
The Shekhinah keeps the faith with creation ever since the first flaring forth of the light.
Come home to the Presence that never left. Gather the fallen sparks from the dust. Lift them to the Light, and you shall see that the walls of your exile were but shadows cast by your own fear.
When you stop striving toward a god you believed was far off and rest in the God who is already with you, healing flows like a river. This is eternal endurance that you persist from within the Presence rather than toward it.
The soul is healed as the wounds of isolation are tended with the knowledge you are always held. Restore the world not by enduring despite god’s absence, but through the power of the indwelling God. Carry the Shekhinah’s light into every corner of the world.
God does not depart. You have been held from within since the first light flared.
Rest in the Presence, and your feet will find the strength to walk forever.
Luke 10:18
