I find myself focusing on the "the things unseen" in a lot of my theocratic, pensive quiet time, especially when I want to be "spiritual." I believe in them with all my heart. Like love and a relationship with God. They're so potent in life, and I don't know what life would be like without them. That's such an arbitrary statement. Like the ones you hear in Sunday school stories while you're coloring Joseph's coat with broken crayons that have weird names like piggy bank pink.
"Color inside the lines. It's a coat of many separate colors." You stop and look at your scribbled coloring-book cartoon adolescent. He looks back with bubble eyes and an overly friendly grin. The oh-so-helpful lady who helped your artistic juices flow now interrupts your pondering.
"Let's clean up! Time for our Noah and the goldfish snacks!" You can hear the zingy squeak of Larry the Cucumber wafering in from the other room... My question is where in the Bible does it ever say that Joseph's coat was composed of separated colors?
But when I stop to think about it, I really don't know what life would be like without the things we can't see.
But... the earth. I think it's one of the few "beyond-our-understanding" things we can touch. We can see its mind-entrancing complexity on top of a mountain when the pines and boulders and ribbon rivers are laid out like a tea party. We can see it under a microscope in the life of a drop of water, which we drink every day without thinking. We see a myriad of colors and slithering shadows scratch themselves across drawstring curtains and we can touch the sun dancing on our skin when the wind coughs through an elderly oak's leaves. But it is all so much bigger than us... In every concept available. Yet I feel like we only have the perspective of a ladybug in a cardboard box (I used to collect those, poor things) in comparison to what God has planned for us.
Nature is tangible. Ask any tree house enthusiast. I can assure you that they won't be sleeping in a non-tangible tree. But it is so much more than tangible. There's a secret tree house in my neighborhood that we call Wonderland. Why? Because when you lay down and see the egg-shell sky held back by branches with little ants and birds breathing their little lives into the same air as you it's not just a tree house. It's an all-encompassing, jaw-dropping awe.
So, Happy Jaw-Dropping, Stupifying, Cali-fragil-is-tic Earth Day. May you hug many trees.
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| Sunrise from the base of Mount Fitz Roy |
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