The W Invitation

Catherine Gibbs

A retired teacher but lifelong learner, now learning to let go and let God teach me. I live beside Te Awa Kairangi (the Hutt River) where I enjoy offering hospitality and growing an attractive and edible garden.

God always surprises us. The following describes an overwhelming experience that couldn’t be contained within a moment of time. I was immersed in several connecting thoughts all at once because of a single letter of the alphabet.

In the chapel after Easter, the wooden cross was no longer bearing a tortured figure but draped in a white cloth shaped as a large W. My eyes were captivated by this linen shape and words emerged.

The resurrected Jesus can be hard to recognise at first.

‘Where do you live?’

The answer was immediate.

‘Come and see. Come and encounter me in the World. In the Wind and Water, in my Wounds.’

With a Wind howling outside it wasn’t difficult to notice this sign. Elijah recognized God in the gentle breeze. Gathered behind locked doors the apostles witnessed God’s spirit as a rushing wind. At home on this day the wild wind was blowing through the double pegged washing of my overseas visitor – tired T shirts, holey socks, mud caked jeans and bandages. Signs of living in the peripheries. I was reminded that we’re all pilgrims and God resides in the humble and the suffering.

As the creation story unfolds God’s spirit breathes over the rippling Waters. The outcast woman at the well was offered Living Water. Fishermen discovered lake waters teeming with fish (the first Christian symbol of belonging to Christ). In my mind’s eye I could see the wooden bridge where I love to pray. It overlooks a clear stream of liquid light, dancing its way to the Tasman Sea. It was a smiling Jesus who says, ‘I am the Way.’

Christ’s Wounds are visible today in familiar faces. Members of my family - one suffers from a rare disease, another had a debilitating stroke, a third who lives with metal plates from a near fatal injury. A friend was getting weaker as cancer takes hold. I could picture the immigrant woman who lives next door who doesn't speak English. What wounds does she carry?

I’m flying blind most of the time, but this immersive experience taught me, that how we get there determines where we finally arrive. My gazing on the Easter cross was a personalized invitation to trust. Jesus’ invitation to, ‘Come and see,’ is located wherever we are, and whoever we’re with. The W invitation drew me in, to surrender to Christ who dwells within and who is eager for recognition in our world.