The
Bible affirms that creation is good (see Genesis 1:31) and it is full of God’s
glory (see Isaiah 6:1-3) and that God rejoices and delights in it (see Proverbs 8:30-31)
Do we delight in creation? Do we see God's delight in it? Or are
we too busy, too distracted? How might we better attend to that delight?
“All
that is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the
air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the beauty of colors, the
fragrancy of smells. The splendor of precious stones, is nothing else but
heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a
degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature.”
–
William Law (1686-1761)
And
every common bush afire with God;
But
only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The
rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
–
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
The Bright Field
I
have seen the sun break through
to
illuminate a small field
for
a while, and gone my way
and
forgotten it. But that was the
pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure
in it. I realise now
that
I must give all that I have
to
possess it. Life is not hurrying
on
to a receding future, nor hankering after
an
imagined past. It is the turning
aside
like Moses to the miracle
of
the lit bush, to a brightness
that
seemed as transitory as your youth
once,
but is the eternity that awaits you.
–
R. S. Thomas (1913-2000)
The Summer Day
Who
made the world?
Who
made the swan, and the black bear?
Who
made the grasshopper?
This
grasshopper, I mean--
the
one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the
one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who
is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --
who
is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now
she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now
she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I
don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I
do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into
the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how
to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which
is what I have been doing all day.
Tell
me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't
everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell
me, what is it you plan to do
With
your one wild and precious life?
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