In a nutshell

Matthew 7:12
The Golden Rule
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

All boiled down
the law and the prophets
summed up in a nutshell
seems so simple.
Yet to live by these few words is
as slippery as the shell on a hazelnut
or as gnarled as the shell on a walnut
or as layered and brittle as the pistachio shell
giving rise to that old adage
of cracking the nut with a sledgehammer.
For such strength and determination
have to be employed
to breakthrough the surface
and penetrate the defences
that keep us at a distance
and prevent us
from doing to others
as we would have them do to us.
With the shells removed
even the nuts that proved
the hardest to crack
can provide sweetness
and sustenance.
Laying ourselves open
and being invited into
the heart of another
calls for a love and respect
that is at once
tender and tough
and vulnerable and persistent.
The rule for life
summed up in a nutshell.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad