Fleeting ...
I wrote earlier about satisfaction, and that you can only be sure of what you are looking for when you have found it and are complete. God is generous, and gives us hints to heaven: those small passing moments when we catch a glimpse of something that excites us, fulfils us, but make us still more hungry.
One of the hints he gives us is in beauty, whether it be beauty in music - a piece or passage that us unexpectedly moving; or beauty in what we see - a single drop of water that glistens like a jewel; or in beauty in our friends and family - like realising, as if for the first time (though it's not) that your mother loves you. God meant these things to make us hungry in the right direction - hungry for heaven, and that this hunger would be a guide to us. It will steer us like a beacon, and fuel us with a passion as we journey. And the more we open our eyes to this steering beauty, the more we see it.
But in all this, the important thing is to be moving, travelling, getting closer and nearer to him. He didn't mean for any of the hints he gives - the fleeting beauties around us - to be satisfying as they are. If hunger for more is to be our fuel, then beauty cannot satisfy, but must point to the one who does. He doesn't want us to be becalmed and motionless, broken down and dangerous in the middle of the road. And so he invented decay. Rot, time, corrosion, blemish, aging, even wrinkles are a part of this great road to heaven!
Have you ever noticed that some of the most poignant moments are the rarest in occurence and the shortest in duration? In one sense, a great beauty is more dangerous than a small one, as the temptation to worship the beauty itself instead of its creator becomes stronger. So it disappears and the decay begins, in order that we mortal humans can never make something of lasting value. We might try, but we cannot; God's loving corrosion is too strong to leave us in such a perilous state. The rose with one broken petal calls attention to its brokenness, and reminds us that while heaven may be near, there is more and better and greater to come; we still have a while longer to travel. Just a thought. K.
- Posted by flyingkiwi on 20/06/2006.
- flyingkiwi's site
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