Welcome: An Introduction

Sharing the insights I discover as I explore and experience the mystery that is our reality. Join me in my journey and share yours.




Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Beauty of Creation: John Calvin/Thomas Merton

" The creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite and the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells us of God."

                                      ~ John Calvin






The Sowing of Meanings
~Thomas Merton

See the high birds! Is theirs the song
That dies among the wood-light
Wounding the listener with such bright arrows?
Or do they play in wheeling silences
Defining in the perfect sky
The bounds of (here below) our solitude,

Where spring has generated lights of green
To glow in clouds upon the sombre branches?
Ponds full of sky and stillnesses
What heavy summer songs still sleep
Under the tawny rushes at your brim?

More than a season will be born here, nature,
In your world of gravid mirrors!
The quiet air awaits one note,
One light, one ray and it will be the angels' spring:
One flash, one glance upon the shiny pond, and then
Asperges me! sweet wilderness, and lo! we are redeemed!

For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,

Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.

Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.

And then, oh then the written image, schooled in sacrifice,
The deep united threeness printed in our being,
Shot by the brilliant syllable of such an intuition, turns within,
And plants that light far down into the heart of darkness and oblivion,
Dives after, and discovers flame.






When my husband and I were dating we took a cross country trip that started from CT and went to Oregon and back. I had always enjoyed nature, but I had seen very little of its diversity until I was blessed with the opportunity of experiencing some of our nations most glorious wonders.

I remember standing in a field of wildflowers at Glacier National Park in Montana completely enchanted by the wonders all around. I couldn't help but think that the meadow in which I stood had untold varieties of flowers, all beautiful and unique, vibrant and full of life. It was like I was standing in a garden planted by God Himself. I had never been in a more beautiful place. In fact, I even decided on that day that if I were to ever have a daughter I would name her after the most beautiful place I had ever been....Montana. And that's my daughter's name...Montana Skye. :)

I couldn't help but think that no matter what one's beliefs are when they stood amidst such beauty their heart would not be able to help but declare that there is, indeed a God. Perhaps we don't always agree on God's name...but nature itself sure points to His existence. To think that God is even more brilliant and glorious than His creations is a humbling thought. That such a great and glorious God is taken all too lightly by many of us is one that makes me want to confess to God those moments in life when I let the world influence me more than God. May God always be King of our lives, King of our hearts...sovereign over every activity we engage in. And may His glory that is manifested in nature never cease to make us tremble at the holy magnificence, power, beauty, grace and mercy of our great God.

~many blessings

3 comments:

  1. You never cease to amaze me Jessica. How can one human being so consistently share such beauty? Well, never mind, I already know the answer. The Source of course! Your poems, pictures, prayers and words all point back to the One who inspires all creativity, the Creator of heaven and earth.

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  2. You are someone I would love to meet in person. Such positivity and always a steady flow of it.

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  3. Jessica, this is so beautiful! I have a special spot next to the river and I often go there when things are getting too much for me. There I sit and watch the beauty of nature. God is so amazing and creative. He made everything so perfect. God is in nature, He is everywhere!

    Thank you for sharing!

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