LOVE THE WORLD

Posted: 10.06.20 in Articles category

Have you ever suddenly been enraptured by creation? The world is full of wonders and invites us into realms of awe and adoration. Yet for us not only to behold but also to be held by creation in all its glory, we have to make ourselves available. We have to allow the world to speak to us. We have to tune in.

For so much of our lives, we are distracted. We may be living in the present but our minds have tended to race ahead, worrying about what is coming, or, when things are too difficult, retreating to comforting memories of the past. The great challenge is to learn to be still and make space in our lives for living in the now.

By the time we are grown, most of us have ceased to thrill at the dawn or the blackbird's song. We no longer stoop to enjoy the glory that is revealed in a flower or a butterfly, the intricate splendour of petal or wing. It is amazing how concerned we become with trivial matters, worries about mere nothings, when the glory of the world waits to speak to us. There is nothing in creation free from mystery if we look deep enough or long enough. Life takes place within the setting of a great miracle and we can derive endless delight from contemplation of it. Everything that is, is holy. We need to discover again that there is an adventure to be lived in our world, a personal discovery to be made of the presence and the life that dances in all things and to delight in joining the dance.

These are the opening words of a recent book by David Adam, former vicar of Holy Island. He's one of the leading Celtic Christian writers today and I find much of his writing to be inspirational, like the passage above. It's not saying anything new - quite the opposite with an age-old message echoing words of St Augustine, Julian of Norwich or Gerard Manley Hopkins. Above all, it's a message resonating with the words of Jesus in teaching his followers to "look at the birds of the air". Memories of my morning birdwatching come flooding back - seeing the beauty of a male Stonechat's orange-coloured breast and the pleasure in hearing a Blackbird sing. Let's continue to be thrilled by the divine glory in it all.