Adoration.
The silent exchange given between lovers when they lock eyes. Exclusive affection. The love that is only given between two people and will be shared with no others.
The nature of adoration is that it loves to gaze. It’s not in a hurry. It is undistracted. Adoration is the preoccupation of the soul that is lost in loving the one upon which it gazes upon. The extended gaze makes you become lost in the loving. This soul-merger takes place as you get lost in another person- where you are not sure where they end and you begin. This fusion of hearts is what we call intimacy.
Intimacy is knowing someone inside and out. But intimacy is not one sided. It grows in equal measure as both lovers give and exchange. Intimacy is never forced and always consensual. This realm of affection cannot be accessed from behind walls. It cannot be touched from a place of self-created safety. To walk into this room where intimacy blooms you can’t wear your armor. You won’t fit through the door with your form-fitted protection. You have to proceed naked. Why? Because vulnerability precedes intimacy.
To be vulnerable is to voluntarily expose the places of your heart that are tender and fragile and easily damaged while trusting the other person to be gentle with those places of your heart. Vulnerability requires courage because there is great risk involved. To be vulnerable is to open yourself up to the risk of being rejected, hurt, and broken. So since the danger is so real and the risk of pain is so great, most people prefer to live with armor covering their hearts and never experience true intimacy.
Intimacy is not sexuality. It’s easy to get naked with someone. It’s much more difficult to truly share your naked soul with someone. Having a skin-to-skin connection with someone doesn’t mean you have a heart-to-heart connection. You can hide behind your nakedness. The unspoken groan is, “Look at my body but please don’t look at my soul.” What a sad interaction when two people can be completely naked physically while there souls simultaneously wear suits of armor and they never once have a spiritual connection.
As you grow in this journey of love toward adoration you must first reach intimacy which will require you to undertake the risk of vulnerability. The sad thing is…most people never even experience vulnerability. Why? Because people are unkind. Most of them, anyway. And all the other people know it. So why risk being vulnerable when the odds are that you are going to get hurt in the process? If the treasure is so valuable and the potential damage so great why should anyone ever dare to take off their self-created heart-armor and risk being vulnerable?
Because we were created for love. We were hardwired for intimacy. We were destined for the ecstasy of adoration-unhindered intimate love. This is why we must choose to take the risk and be vulnerable.
Yet, there is a place of vulnerability that cannot be reached between mere humans. It is reserved for the Divine. There is a place of vulnerability that is meant only for the Creator and his creation. You see, only God can see your naked soul. Only God can truly know all of you. Only God can see past the armor and the masks and the appearances and see the true you. He is the only one that can see all of you and love all of you. No one can love you more than him because no one knows you more than him. There is no one you can be more vulnerable with than God. He knows all of your thoughts, dreams, pain, and secret desires. He knows all the tears you would have cried if you were in a safe place to cry them. He knows all your faults, and iniquities, and mistakes and the dark corners of your soul and he loves you anyway. He loves you…intimately. More than all the others ever could.
And this is why there is no greater realm of love to be experienced than the love of God. With no one else can you be more vulnerable, intimate and in love. His all-knowing gaze dares to see your unveiled soul. The soul that dares to stare into the eyes of the loving God will inevitably fall in love with him.This gaze of love isn’t shared with others. It is sacred.
Loving him, cherishing his beauty, getting lost in affection for him as you gaze back at him with loving adoration is the highest calling and the greatest ecstasy of all created beings. Dare to look at him…as he is looking at you…and get caught up in adoration.
