Seventh-day Adventist® Church

Today has been International Kissing Day. 6 July. But of course a kiss is not just for one day. This day celebrates the kiss. An expression. A communication. An intimate act.

I was thinking of this as I was driving along, making my way back from a Friday evening appointment. Pondering about my ponderings, I pondered on "the kiss". This made me want to be home sooner!

I changed the CD in the player, and after a few songs, still thinking about the meaning of a kiss, the next track rifted through my speakers. I recognised the bassy chant of the instruments, and spun the volume dial up. Right up. A drying road after a day of torrential rain, street lights illuminating pads of orange on the motorway, outnumbered by trucks limited to 56mph, and no one to tell me to turn the music down because the kids are trying to sleep in the back. No, I was alone, keeping beat with my thumbs on the steering wheel, and singing like I wanted to lose my voice.

The album: "Kiss the River" by Paul Oakley. (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/kiss-the-river/id410029540).

I was listening to the song that gave its name to the album. The first lines of the song are:

I still remember, falling to the floor and
Now I, often wonder how I ever dared to let you come
Even closer, closer than the air around me
Underneath my skin.

The reference to "kissing the river" comes later in the song. Throughout the song there is a sense of being absorbed, surrounded, consumed, by the presence of God. Just like a kiss can lose you in the intimacy of the moment, this song basks in the pleasure of intimacy with God.

While kissing is to be celebrated, and enjoyed responsibly, the intimacy of the presence of God is to be celebrated too. Maybe it's time for you to "kiss the river"!

- Pr Nathan Stickland