God Resting on Our Eyelids

September 2009

by Julie K. Aageson

As I begin my first contribution to the “Let Us Pray” column, I write from my home in Moorhead, Minn., where floodwaters continue to rage up and down the Red River Valley of the North. Though you are reading this in September, I write in early spring. And I find it difficult not to focus on the chaos of record-breaking floods in this part of the Upper Midwest. Perhaps you remember the news reports of extraordinary community support and camaraderie—the thousands of volunteers who came to the sister cities of Fargo and Moorhead to build dikes and levees to keep the rising waters at bay. And then, to add insult to injury, another winter storm blew into the area.

Through all of this, I pondered this column and what might be gleaned from such an experience. I didn’t want to trivialize the suffering or sentimentalize the stories of sacrifice and care, or perhaps worse, capitalize on a natural disaster by turning it into a story of good. I’ve struggled to make sense of so destructive an event. The raw suffering of so many isn’t obliterated by equal examples of self-sacrifice and generosity. At the same time, the spirit of communal care, collaboration, and encouragement in the face of adversity is the best of what it means to be human.

This year’s study of Paul’s letter to the Romans begins with the theme of encouragement. The first verses of Chapter 1 resonate with words of mutuality and support—“I remember you always in my prayers . . .”—the very words shared thousands of times this spring—“. . . I am longing to see you . . . . so we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith . . .”—the essence of so many phone calls, e-mails, Facebook notes—and words we use again and again to express deeply felt concern and love.

All my life, I’ve felt uneasy about an undisciplined prayer life. At the same time, prayer is part of my daily life and breath. The great Jewish rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote a book in the 20th century about prayer. Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (Aurora Press, 1998) and a later compilation, I Asked for Wonder (Crossroad, 1993, Samuel Dresner, ed.) have accompanied me through many of life’s challenges. Among the images I carry from Heschel’s body of work is this: God is resting on our eyelids. Yes, God rests on our eyelids, seeking us out even when we give no thought whatsoever to God. God seeks us! God is with us! God rests on our eyelids.

Making sense of suffering and adversity is never easy. Paul’s words in Romans 1 are filled with “God resting on our eyelids,” words that speak mutual encouragement and strength. God rests on our very eyelids, present to us through one another, through prayers we cannot utter, prayers said on our behalf, psalms of lament and psalms of hope, acts of kindness and courage. We are held in the embrace of God, come hell or high water. God rests on our eyelids; we are not alone. Encouragement indeed!

Julie K. Aageson is coordinator of ELCA Resource Centers and director of the Resource Center for the Eastern North Dakota Synod.