1) Sunlight on water can be a thousand different kinds of beautiful. Even over the same body of water, this East Texas lake for instance, every morning sky reflects uniquely and changes by the minute. Every evening, I peer from this mezzanine-like porch through drooping cathedral limbs at the water and sky unable to look away for fear I will miss a "scene". The elements never change, but I experience them differently every time I watch. All I can do is stare, trying to sear the spectacle into my brain. But once the waters are dark, I can not fully remember the fullness of the view or recreate the happiness I felt in it.
2) Likewise, though scripture (and liturgy) is unchanging, I seldom remember it fully after I close my Bible. Neither can I easily recapture the experience, the reflection, or the connections I made during my reading. Like a sunrise, a single passage can affect me differently on different days. From the angle of my circumstances and the amount of understanding given me, I see the verse in a different "light" every time I read it.
3) Unlike unchanging elements and the Bible, my 5-month-old daughter changes with precise regularity. I stare at her in wonder morningly. I file the mental picture in my memory along with the glorious sunrises and life-changing Bible study moments- all three categories jumbled and fuzzy in my mind, never to be repeated. In this limit of mortality, I feel a mix of sorrow and delight. But mostly I feel awe.
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