Good morning…
At the fun filled Open Air worship on Sunday night, one Friday morning Bible study friend said, “I have a book I have been meaning to drop off for you. My friend from Jacksonville, Florida gave it to me and I feel compelled to pass it along to you.”
I didn’t think much about her kind offer until I returned from a Tuesday morning walk and talk to find this book, a generous gift resting on our doorstep.
My soul smiled wide as I read in Betty Skinner’s handwriting:
“Yesterday, today & forever – Betty – January, 2007”
Many of you remember my special friendship with ninety-four-year old Betty, a Christian mystic who I have loved visiting a few magical times in her Ponte Vedra, Florida nursing home. A sad part of COVID is that Betty, like many of her well seasoned peers, is not allowed visitors, so my trip to see her in April was canceled alongside our late March Awake To Wholeness Women’s Retreat planned with the authors of The Hidden Life Awakened, As learners in our living room, we were studying this book when Coronavirus closed down everything, this holy book chronicling Betty’s amazing journey with the Lord up from the valley of clinical depression to the tip top of the glorious mountain of oneness with God.
Now receiving this new-to-me, hard cover devotional book from Betty, offered through the generous hand of my Friday morning friend, I felt fully embraced by The Circle of Love. Opening to the first pages, I read Betty’s detailed outline of how we are all invited into the circle of God’s Love over our lifetime.
PREPARATION – (early years) – You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. – Deuteronomy 4:29
TRANSFORMATION – (early middle years) – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2
INTEGRATION – (late middle years) – I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. – Galatians 2:20
ILLUMINATION – (late years) – When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” – John 8:12
THE UNITIVE LIFE – (late, late years) – Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love… We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. – 1 John 4:7, 8, 13
Then I read the introductory words of Betty written from the Hermitage in January of 2006, words inviting each of us into Love’s never-ending circle.
“This inspired book is a love offering. In offering it, I am entrusting you with the intimacy of the hidden life and inviting you to step out of the darkness of your own confusion and pain into the purity of the Light that fills the Circle of Love. This is the Light of the One Who comes into our darkness and reveals to us a glowing vision of the healing power of His Love. It is the descending way to a priceless and very precious discovery. It is the discovery that beneath each trembling edge lies one sweet, forgotten Secret: the Gift of Love, the Christ, the Savior.”
Enjoy your own dynamic discovery of this forgotten Secret. From before we are born through the end of all time, we are each entrusted with the intimacy of the hidden life, invited to step out of our inner darkness into the Light of Christ’s ever widening Circle of Love.
…Sue…
