Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. — Job 38:4-5
Whose Will decreed This slash of sea
Would frame This sun in gleams of green?
What Plan determines stone’s decline,
Or shapes in stars, or shadow’s sheen,
Or that we track, as clever beasts,
The passing haze of comet’s fall,
And made this glaze of Thought on flesh
That sees the need of Plan at all?
I know, I know… no Plan at all
Is thought by some to be the plan,
And yet what is this sheen on thought
That seeks to measure more than man?
Look out beyond the far Deep Field,
Beyond the limits of our sight.
It cannot be that All that is,
Is only night on deeper night.
But if that should be All that is,
And All as purposeless as stones,
The Heart still sings the body’s chants,
And moves the Light within the bones.
Perhaps this pattern that we know
As time at slant between two lights,
Is but some dance to entertain
What lies beyond our Shaded sight.
Yet what dark mind could find a gleam
Of pleasure from such turns,
Instead of reading evil
In a countenance of burns?
The Countenance of comets,
That the sky at night assumes,
Mutes all equations memorized
On the Continent of Tombs.
To stand but Once within this Field,
And feel the hands of wind,
Is ample compensation
For the Gift the years rescind.
At length our modern marvels
Seem but Blots of haze on slate,
That we note with brief attention
As we step between the Gates,
And dance, to some faint music,
Along the path of day’s retreat,
Our ancient, ageless minuet
That rounds this sleep with sleep.
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Gerard Van der Leun
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This tragicomic within which we play
Is a game, or school, or both,
some may say.
So take the bruises and milestoned contusions
And revel in all your confusions.
What you learn is what you earn
Misunderstandings must burn, burn, burn.
Q: Did He Who made the Lamb make thee?
A: Got another suspect?
I cannot understand a man who fails to see God’s tapestry in his own life. It is as if such a man has purposefully blinded himself, like some cut-rate Oedipus howling in the darkness. He rages against the Light he himself has extinguished.
Life is meaningless without God.
Thanks GVL, that poem is a great way to celebrate being alive on Sunday and focus upon the power of God and His creation.
Breathtaking. Humbling,and uplifting at the same time. The Hubble quietly continues to prove man’s curiosity is one of The Lord’s greatest gifts.
100 billion galaxies in the Universe. We occupy a very small part of same. And still, we are told and consoled by the teaching that, our Creator knows when a single sparrow falls from the sky. It truly is beyond my ability to comprehend.
Very fine work. Thank you. Covers the main bases perfectly—awe, utter mystery, dumbfoundedness, glory, inexpressibility, paradox, and joyful humility.
For in Him we live and move and have our being.