This comes in the first chapter of John,
not always the most wild of the gospels,
or is it?
Receiving someone.
Is it so important
that an act of receiving
or not receiving
must be mentioned in the opening chapter
or else we might not understand
the gospel?
I am beginning to think it is.
For love finds room when we
receive each other.
This happens more easily
to the extent
that we are able also
to receive ourselves--
as we are right now,
not in some other version.
Jesus, the one received by only a few,
knew how to receive himself
whether the world was ready or not,
and from this came his freedom
to love the entire universe.