Tuesday 29 April 2008

Heaven

"Do you think of a heaven up above,
a place where there's no hatred, only love,
do you imagine angels in the blue, is it too far from you,
can it be true?"
from the song, 'Heaven' by Cloud.


Whilst reading David Berlinski's startling work, 'The Devil's Delusion' yesterday, he made a statement regarding the Biblical affirmation of God that made me stop...
"If God is one, He is one absolutely, because not only does He exist, He must exist - His existence is necessary".
My pause was followed last evening by a documentary which was seeking to examine if there was any reality or merit to so-called 'miraculous' (signs and wonders) phenomena or whether these were either predictable or, in some cases, a form of mental distress or illness.
What became apparent to me, in the light of the thought touched upon by Berlinski, was that if the Biblical affirmation is true, then we can actually spend a great deal of time looking in totally the wrong direction for 'evidence' of God.

In the Psalms, we often see that it is by reflecting upon the very world around us - the work of His hands - that we can begin to encounter the reality of the divine.
The intricacy of the way our frames are woven together in secret, the magnificence of the vista of a star-filled sky, the glories and splendour creation displays openly and, when we explore it's deepest domains, leaves us in a state of marvel and awful realization, and there is a reason why.

The scriptures inform us that God's holiness (His essential character) is expressed in a particular fashion - the world is "filled' with His glory.
Now glory is not a word we use often, expect perhaps in terms of fame, but here we gain a clue -
it's a word which speaks of significance (someone being known because of who they are or what they have done). What we're being told is that when we honestly look at the splendor of creation, we will evidence a 'weight' in these things that communicates to us the importance of the one behind such marvels.

Amidst the hotch-potch of weather we are having here at the moment, there was a few days last week where the temperature went up a few notches and the sun appeared. These few changes triggered something in me - Spring was here, and I wanted to 'taste' it.
I proceeded to enjoy two very satisfying evening walks amidst the nearby woods.

We don't have to look very far to find heaven - to see God's 'weight'.
The reality is all around, if we open our eyes, so we must take the opportunity to
'taste', to 'see', that God is there, and is indeed good.


1 comment:

Sensuous Wife said...

God!
That is so, true.

Glory. The weightiness and importance of it all. Creation is teeming with life and the fingerprints of God.

"this is my Father's world
the birds their carols raise
the morning light
the lily white
declare their Maker's praise"