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Beauty
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)
Recent Posts
God? Who Needs Him?May 31, 2013
Self-sufficient humanism. Paul saw it coming – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Imago Dei
September 12, 2012
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why Can't I Pray?
August 18, 2012
The bible gives us several reasons, but according to Jeremy Taylor, a deceitful heart is at the root of prayerlessness.
It's Not Rocket Science
July 23, 2012
To keep in step with the Spirit should be our daily quest. And if we are successful at that, all of life falls into place.
Theological Steak
April 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
Strange Bedfellows: Longing and Joy
December 26, 2008
God has placed eternity in the hearts of his creatures. (Ecc.3:11) Earth is merely a prelude for what is to follow. But earth gives us glimpses, scents, hints that heighten our longing for the eternal, and awaken joy, however fleeting.
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:1-3
C. S. Lewis in "Surprised By Joy" wrote about his theory of joy, which he also called longing, desire or nostalgia. His theory holds that "human beings are conscious of a desire or longing that no natural happiness will satisfy."
Joy, then, is the fleeting, sweetly painful experience of longing for divine or numinous beauty - an elusive experience which often departs as quickly as it arrives. These longings are often evoked by nostalgic memories, encounters with nature, or certain books or music.
Kenneth MaCrae was a Scottish Presbyterian (is that redundant?) in the first half of the 20th Century, and in his journal describes a sunset he witnessed one particular day...
Monday, 3 November: Kilmuir
"In afternoon walked across to Staffin through the hill. The day was perfect and the scene, looking back from near the top of the Bealach in the light of the dying day, was perhaps the most exquisite ever I have looked upon. The sky was bright, almost flashing, with cloudlets of brilliant hues, the mountains black, sharply outlined against the sky, and the moor before me shadowy with the gloom of coming night."
"As I stood there, not a soul broke the stillness, not a bird cried, not a breath of wind ruffled through the silence. Nature herself seemed to be holding her breath at the beauty of the sight. I wished that by some means I might have been able to take away a reproduction of the picture to show the world, but I had to leave it behind me in the loneliness of the wilderness until night came and blotted it out." DIARY OF KENNETH MACRAE, page 157-8
MaCrae witnessed for a moment something transcendent, which he longed to capture, to put in a bottle a fleeting glory. But it came and went, heightening his longing for a time when there is no more night, as he got a whiff of an endless day. And in that moment, joy and longing held hands.
C.S. Lewis says that moments like what is described above are "not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." Hopefully, these experiences will keep us seeking something more, like "some vague picnicker's hankering for a "better place."
Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26
C. S. Lewis in "Surprised By Joy" wrote about his theory of joy, which he also called longing, desire or nostalgia. His theory holds that "human beings are conscious of a desire or longing that no natural happiness will satisfy."
Joy, then, is the fleeting, sweetly painful experience of longing for divine or numinous beauty - an elusive experience which often departs as quickly as it arrives. These longings are often evoked by nostalgic memories, encounters with nature, or certain books or music.
Kenneth MaCrae was a Scottish Presbyterian (is that redundant?) in the first half of the 20th Century, and in his journal describes a sunset he witnessed one particular day...
Monday, 3 November: Kilmuir
"In afternoon walked across to Staffin through the hill. The day was perfect and the scene, looking back from near the top of the Bealach in the light of the dying day, was perhaps the most exquisite ever I have looked upon. The sky was bright, almost flashing, with cloudlets of brilliant hues, the mountains black, sharply outlined against the sky, and the moor before me shadowy with the gloom of coming night."
"As I stood there, not a soul broke the stillness, not a bird cried, not a breath of wind ruffled through the silence. Nature herself seemed to be holding her breath at the beauty of the sight. I wished that by some means I might have been able to take away a reproduction of the picture to show the world, but I had to leave it behind me in the loneliness of the wilderness until night came and blotted it out." DIARY OF KENNETH MACRAE, page 157-8
MaCrae witnessed for a moment something transcendent, which he longed to capture, to put in a bottle a fleeting glory. But it came and went, heightening his longing for a time when there is no more night, as he got a whiff of an endless day. And in that moment, joy and longing held hands.
C.S. Lewis says that moments like what is described above are "not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." Hopefully, these experiences will keep us seeking something more, like "some vague picnicker's hankering for a "better place."
Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26
