"Hunting Song" Poem

In Dr. Redick's book, Fires by Jean Fowler, there was a poem that stuck out to me called Hunting Song, which we read. A phrase that repeats multiple times throughout the poem is "Dance the bear." We discussed how the phrase means a relationship between humans and nature. It is kinship. You become the bear when you eat the bear. 

One of the things that kept popping in my head as we read this poem was the contrast and comparison between the Christian symbolism of the Eucharist. The bread symbolizes Jesus' body, which He freely gave as a gift to us all, and the wine represents His blood, which was shed on the cross. While I don't think that we become Jesus Christ, Himself, when we take communion, there is a kind of fellowship we have with one another when this happens. We are engaging in a relationship between the food we are eating as well as a kind of spiritual relationship with God. We are accepting Jesus' gift by eating the sacrifice. We do this literally and metaphorically. We accept it literally by eating the food and we accept it metaphorically by knowing that we have done wrong things in our life but believing that God can absolve us of these wrongs. 

One thing I learned recently that has stuck with me is that God is not some angry face in the sky like He is depicted in Monty Python. He is soft, quiet, and wants to be our friend. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, meaning this: He is not there to make us feel even more guilty over our sin. Instead, He is there to comfort us and let us know that He loves us. 

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