“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.ย Why do men then now not reck his rod?*
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”
–by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
I am especially reveling this week in the wonder of being given eyes to see God– in nature, in His Word, and at work in the lives of those who don’t yet concede to who He is… I went and found a patch of darkness to shine in and oh! how wonderful it is to know the light of Life in dark places.
“In the beginning was the Word,…
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…
That was the true Light which, coming into the world, gives light to every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not…”
(excerpts from John 1)
–LS
Wherever you may be, let your light shine and together we’ll light up the darkness!
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*”reck His rod” = heed His divine authority
smile!