Consider this metaphor:

When I was a child I got many bumps and bruises.  Often our family referred to them as “boo-boos”.  When I got a boo-boo I would generally cry — “boo-who, boo-who.”  Then I would run to my Daddy, and show him the boo-boo, and he would say, “Ah, that’s ok.  But I’ll kiss your boo-boo and make it all better.”  And he would place a soft kiss on the hurt, and I would feel all better and run off. Just his reassurance helped.   Of course, I’d tumble and fall again, and get hurt, and go back to Daddy.

When God created the earth, He saw there was a void over the face of the planet. (Gen. 1:2) This word actually means a void, an emptiness, a waste space. In Hebrew that word is bohuw (pronounced bow-who), and could be defined as an “undistinguishable ruin.”

What did God do with that void, that bow-who?  His Spirit brooded or hovered over it. He fluttered and moved gently, like an eagle placing its young under her wings.  And what resulted?  Light and Life. And the Creation Story.

How this happened is a mystery.

But it happened as a result of the Spirit of God showing up.

It happened because the Creator loves the earth

and sends His Spirit to do its miraculous, regenerative work.

So just like we see God’s Spirit filling the emptiness and ruin (bow-hoo) on the earth, we see God’s Spirit of His Beloved Son hovering over us.  Jesus is kissing our boo-boos, our pains and afflictions. His presence and reassurance is taking the sting away.  He shares in our suffering.

Also, we see Jesus being slaughtered like a lamb in order to free us from sin and pain.

We can watch Him model for us how to camak.  If we are to experience this Paschal mystery of Christ’s victory on the Cross, we are called to camak ourselves.  How do we do that?  We offer up our life’s blood, open up our jugulars,  just like Jesus did.  Once we lose our own lives for Christ’s sake, we will be healed and set free from our suffering. When we are commissioned (camak) in Jesus’s kingdom there will be suffering, no doubt about it. But this is the Gospel, the process of redemption, sanctification and resurrection.

I pray that this writing sheds some light on this Glorious Mystery.

Thank you, Jesus.

In Christ,