Jake took the beautiful picture that is now my new background last weekend while walking around his new city :)! Isn't it great? Something inside of me sorta "catches" every time I look at it. I think it's sweet and wonderful and I want to take her hands in mine and ask, "what's your story, sweet woman?" and, "would you share your soft, whispered prayers?" I imagine her hands are warm and she offers a tired smile and we sit together for a bit there on those steps...
...oh yeah, and i imagine i can speak hungarian or she can speak english. but those are minor details ;)
And now this quote is fitting. So glad Mariah reminded me of it and had me reread it today...
"I might seem to be comparing something great and holy with a minor and ordinary thing, that is, love of God with mortal love. But I just don't see them as separate things at all. If we can be divinely fed with a morsel and divinely blessed with a touch, then the terrible pleasure we find in a particular face can certainly instruct us in the nature of the very grandest love. I devoutly believe this to be true. I remember in those days loving God for the existence of love and being grateful to God for the existence of gratitude..." (from Gilead)
ummm, yep. that's pretty much exactly how i feel. there are things in this life too deep for words. they lie "out beyond ideas" and invite us to take part in a larger existence--to peek into a greater reality. it's one of my favorite things to discover this to be true of an experience, opportunity, or person (etc.) and smile into the day, loving God for love and grateful to him for gratitude--gifted moments. this week has been hard. really quite hard, and i know it has been hard for some of you as well. but there have been such gifted moments (as there always are, i think, though we can miss them if we aren't careful) and when the week is as this one has been, we have to hold really tight to those moments.
be watchful for the moments, k? hold tight to them. and enjoy how this photo (i find) binds mortal and divine love.
3 comments:
What is the context for that quote? Cause I feel like w/o the context I can't really tell what is trying to be communicated. What am I missing?
true, it's a little difficult, but the concepts come through. he's retelling stories of his life (to his son). the context for the quote is a story about the first time he sees his (later-to-be) wife's face in the congregation of his church (he's a preacher) and can't put it out of his mind. so he's trying to write a sermon but can't focus on it because he's remembering her face. basically, he's learning (wanting) to love her and is experiencing that alongside a love of God that is informing his experience--so he's feeling the intersection of divine and mortal love and acknowledging their overlap. so...the "terrible pleasure" he finds in her particular face becomes something that instructs him in the very grandest love. have you ever met someone who you can celebrate with a depth of love and respect that isn't entirely of you? Or you sense your ability to value something (someone) in a way that seems to transcend your mortal ability to value/care. does that make more sense? i think he's touching on the beauty of that overlap--divine and mortal--that we see in the world around us and experience in rare (or not-so-rare) moments. in your picture, i find it applies in a few ways--the woman's seeming heartfelt concern for something mortal (need for bread, comfort, love, hope?) and her fervent posture of prayer...it's like you're looking at the intersection of the mortal and the divine, catching a glimpse of their collision and left to wonder what will come of it...and also in the way(s) that we can sense the beauty of HER in a way that moves beyond the confines of her physical location, etc. There's something strikingly beautiful about her posture...
anyway, maybe this was just too hard of an idea to communicate through a post :) probably. whatever, i tried. sometimes i think i should probably not get too carried away trying to describe some of these ideas...but i hope this helped clarify in some ways?
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