Sweet Communion, November 8, 2025

“Though I’m not yet with him, I am,” Hup whispered and closed his eyes. As he did, he saw a banquet table. On that table awaited him bread, a golden chalice, and a canticle of red wine drifting above in love and the sweet fragrance of spikenard. Hup knew he was with him in spirit, as Mary ran ahead of Martha when hearing of Christ’s coming. Jesus, the sweet savoring sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, whom his Father betrothed to his elect and sealed by the Holy Spirit. In him does he live and move and have his being – resurrected in him, captivity now captive. 

“Yes,” Hup thought, “the aroma… the fragrance of myrrh and camphire. How I am overwhelmed by the assault on my senses! What is seen, and touched, and heard remains outside of me, but what is tasted and taken into my body is that blessed exchange of essences… a true joining and knowing of one’s spouse… no, not in a carnal sense as some make it out to be – a marital joining of man and wife, but in a mystical, deeply spiritual integration, where what remains virtually promised will become the greater in eternity. The portion given? Bundle and cluster?

“Why didn’t I know it before?” Hup wondered aloud. “Bundle and cluster was given to me as Elijah gave the jar of flour and jug of oil to the widow of Zarephath. Why have I not seen it? My God has provided for me daily, and how many days have I spent in hunger and thirst not realizing that blessed jar and jug were left at heart’s door?  

“Well?” Hup asked. “Now, I am here – sweet communion. I am at your Engedi table, close by the caves where David hid from Saul, and where I am hidden in Christ in God, seated at the right hand of the Father. And yet, I await – alive, in body, mind and spirit – and it is you, Lord, who rests his head on my breast… you who fills my heart. Indeed,