"And when the peony showed up..."

Metamorphóō (Greek), changing from one form into another, still retaining the essence of what one was and one is. Transfiguration. How are we to behold Christ’s glory and live? How can it be that we too are to be transfigured, transformed, that we are to experience metamorphóō in our being? (2 Corinthians 3:18) Some mysteries need a poet’s touch.

Contemplative prayer with peony                                                                                     

by Luci Shaw

So, I didn’t latch onto a holy word                                             

and go into space and, ethereal,

lose touch with my body. But God,

in those thirty slow minutes, you

unfolded in me the bud of a fresh

flower, with color and fragrance

that was more than my soul

was capable of, on its own.

. . . We all, with unveiled face,

behold as in a mirror

the glory of the Lord.

And when the peony showed up,

I knew it as a kind of mirror. This

was glory in pink and cream, with

a smell of heaven. Petals like valves

opening into the colors of my heart.

I saw myself kneeling on a grass border,

my knees bruising the green, pressing

my face into the face of this silken,

just-opened bloom, and breathing it,

wanting to drown in it. Wanting

to grow in its reflected image.

(Source: Christian Century, Nov. 19, 2015)