Bending the knee
I saw this picture the other day and it moved me to tears. Rarely have I seen an image tell the layers of a story in a single frame. A woman — a farmer, I believe — kneeling in the rain-soaked ground, one hand buried in the muddy water, her head bowed. Relief, gratitude, hope, humility, being in the present… she said it all in that one position.
I knew why the image made me cry. It’s because that’s how I grew up. In my community, the rollercoaster of emotions we felt were expressed in every kneeled position. My parents and paternal family prayed over every single situation… good or bad. We layed our hands on everything from our textbooks to our tax returns, putting our hope in God to see us through. We prayed over our teachers, over our neighbours, our bosses, our customers and yes, even our pets.
It’s not uncommon for me, now as an adult, to lay my hands on the tangible and intangible alike. Things like my computer screen or keyboard are not excluded when I feel the urge to express to God what I cannot express to humans. I’ve even been known to pray for a safe parking spot. One day, I laid hands on our fridge because it stopped working after 21 hours of loadshedding… which brings me to the point of this post.
When Cardiology Greeting Cards started, it did so with a lot of prayer. I laid my hands on the cards and gift tags, I prayed for the success of the suppliers critical to our progress and I even prayed over retailers who made us suffer.
Knowing that there are homes our cards will reach is a humbling thought. We recognise that there may be people who are in need of a miracle, or people who see others receive cards and wish it was them. There may be people who are celebrating and our cards bring them joy or people who are suffering who just want to pull the covers over and wish the day away. Wherever you are in your life at this moment, just know that there is a company who thinks about you, even if we can’t reach you.
We are very often the woman in the picture… kneeling in prayer to thank God for you because you sustain our goal for #culturalinclusivity with every purchase; kneeling for the provision of good ideas so we can build on making the greeting card industry more diverse than what it is; kneeling for other local businesses; kneeling just for you and whatever your needs are in this point in time.
In fact, we spend a lot of time praying just for you. And if you don’t believe that the Source of all creation would halt time and space to tell you this, then we don’t think you understand your value very well. In our experience (and we’ve experienced it many times), even if you were the only one, God would have chased after your heart. It doesn’t matter what your theism is; mono, poly, a-… There is only one of you and you matter.
I think that’s what we miss in our technical world. We forget that unconditional Love is simply that… Love, without condition. We forget that emotion is energy in motion. We forget that our intention creates our reality.
So, if for absolutely nothing else, I hope you know deep down in your soul that this Christmas, I have thought of you and prayed for whatever you are experiencing. We might never meet face-to-face, but there in the energy of Love, we are family and I’ve got your back.
Oh, by the way, the fridge after hours of being warm, worked again and I’ve never had to wait long for a safe parking spot.
With all my heart,
B.