The Creation
Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Wisdom from Adam Bucko: The Image
of God as Defiant Language By Matthew Fox 2/20/2026 |
A few years ago, I was in upstate New York co-facilitating a retreat for homeless youth. We were there for a few days of prayer, reflection on our lives, and time spent in the beauty of the surrounding environment…. A young girl named Ebony approached me by the chapel. Painful things from her
past were beginning to surface for her during the retreat, and she had difficulty expressing them. Seeing her pain, and how hard it was for her to put words to years of private suffering, I encouraged her to go for a walk around the chapel and find three objects in nature that represented some of what she was feeling. She came back after about twenty minutes, and I asked her to talk about each object and why she had chosen it. |
|
| One of Ebony’s objects was a flower that had not yet bloomed. She
told me that she felt like this flower, as if there were a gift inside her trying to emerge, but no one knew. Even she had forgotten it. She said, “I am like this flower. From the outside, no one knows that this flower has the potential to be beautiful, to offer fragrance, and to bloom unless they look inside. One day I know I will bloom, but I don’t seem to be able to get there.” I was struck by the truth in her words. There clearly was beauty, potential, and |
heartfulness within
her, but it was all hidden and guarded by the rigid pain of her past….I suggested that Ebony take her three objects into the chapel and spend some time in prayer and meditation. She went in, closed her eyes, and sat in silence for some time, holding the objects in her hands…. Some time later, I noticed her from a distance
running toward me with a big smile. I was not sure what had happened, but I could see that she was radiant with life. “What is it?” I asked. “Look at
this flower,” she answered. “It is the same flower I showed you earlier,” she said. “I was holding it in my hands while praying with my eyes closed, and I felt something. I felt like all those struggles I was feeling but could not express in words just dissolved, and there was this sense of relief and peace. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked. The flower I had been holding opened and bloomed while I was praying.” |
Witnessing her words and her radiant face, I felt that something special had just happened. Years later, she told me that this little flower meditation, as she called it, was the starting point of a new life for her. It gave her permission to emerge from hiding and to say yes to the gift she was
carrying in her heart, the gift that was hers to give to the world. All of our spiritual traditions insist on this truth: we are sacred and holy. In my own tradition, the creation story in |
|
Genesis tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. That is not sentimental language. It is defiant language. It means that in every human being there is something irreducible, something that cannot be erased, slandered, deported, bought, or silenced. We all carry special gifts
within us! It is what Ebony sensed in herself on that retreat before she had words for it. To be continued. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you agree with Adam that the idea of being made in the image and likeness
of God is not sentimental, but defiant, and it is applicable to resistance struggles in Minneapolis and beyond? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! CREATION SPIRITUALITY CONVERSATIONS |
Podcaster Jon Wilson speaks with Matthew Fox about Creation Spirituality: how Matthew became a Dominican priest; his studies in Paris, Original Blessing versus the Fall-Redemption tradition; the Four Paths; mystics Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank; Eros, ritual and how ‘this is
wisdom to love life’. Listen HERE. |
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Matthew Fox joins the real-time Unity Earth Symposium V, “Spiraling Up: A New Energy for Planetary Consciousness,” to give a live-streamed lecture on “From Awareness to Action.” Sunday, February 22, 7:00am PT. Register HERE. |
MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
Join Zoom Meeting HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org Matthew Fox joins Unity Inspired Living to give an inspirational message,"Roots Before Wings: The Foundational Role of Science in Supporting Spirituality," at Sunday morning worship, also livestreamed on Facebook Live, March 8, 10:00am PT. Learn more HERE. |
Matthew Fox joins David Abram, Lynn Twist, and Randy Woodley as Cameron Trimble of Convergence CoLab hosts “Vision for the Common Good,” a four-session Conversation Series. Tuesdays, March 17, 24, 31, and April 7, 4:00pm-5:30pm PT Register HERE. |
|
Matthew Fox offers a lecture, “A Christianity for All Creation” as part of “For All Creation: A Day with Matthew Fox, Kelly Sherman-Conroy and Will Allen,” an On-site and Virtual Event presented by the Center for Ecological Regeneration, Hennepin Ave. UMC, and Garrett
Evangelical Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. Saturday, April 18, 9:00am – 3:00pm Register HERE. |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May
25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred island of Sardinia for a deeply immersive 6-day retreat rooted in the teachings of Matthew Fox, C.G. Jung, and the ancient wisdom of the land. Set along the turquoise shores and among the Neolithic sites of this timeless Mediterranean island, this retreat invites you into a transformative journey of reconnection—with Earth, Self,
Gender, and the Divine. Learn more HERE. |
Inspired by this post? Share your insights on BlueSky, Instagram, Universeodon, or Facebook using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox FOLLOW MATTHEW FOX: |
|
|
|
