The Dilation of Light & Love

I was at the ophthalmologists the other day where I had my eyes dilated. When the dilation was complete, the doctor was able to gain perspective and view the delicate inner structures that otherwise are invisible to the naked eye and almost impossible to view with the pupils constricted.

The heavy pulling and stretching of my pupils expanding reminded me of the dilation of a woman in labor: pulling and stretching to bring forth the inner life. Only once dilation is complete, can we begin to realize the human being that was formed within. Apart from dilation, we would never know the beauty and complexity of what a woman's body can produce.

One of the side effects of optical dilation is the ability to see far off but not close up. If you try and read things too close, it's out of focus and painful. Similarly, with a woman, the labor that creates dilation is the promise of joy far off. If you try and make sense of the process while in the midst of it, you can begin to loose focus on what is to come and can become lost in the pain.

There is a biological reality that through dilation a more exact understanding takes place. Through dilation, there is an ability to conceptualize what is far off, what is in the near distance, but not yet in reach. A fixation on what is ahead that provides strength to present.

My soul aches for a Holy Spiritual dilation...

Father in heaven,
 widen my heart, my mind, my soul! 

Dilate my spiritual eye, 

that I might see you more clearly.

Open up my spiritual womb, 

that I might gain a deeper understanding of who I am, born again in You.

Give me the outlook of dilation: 

the fixation on what is to come that provides the strength for what is the now.

Expand the light.

Enlarge the love.

In the name of the way, the truth and the life,
 Jesus Christ, Amen.