Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. – 1 Corinthians 13:12

My Saturday morning men’s Bible study group is – currently – reading The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian. If I had to choose, I’d say it was my favorite book.

Today’s conversation moved around the content of Chapter Ten, “A Collision of Worlds.” The main idea is that we are temporal beings, living limited lifespans on a small planet, hemmed in by the limitations of time and space; yet we worship an eternal Creator who reaches into our world to teach us how to live as beings of light and love, as new creations, and as ambassadors for God’s Kingdom.

So we experience dissonance, and we live beyond understanding, and we know in the deepest parts of ourselves that this world is not enough to explain the mystery and the magnificent, transcendent, beauty of life.

I enjoyed an excellent, insightful discussion with the guys – we always do. But sometimes it takes a visual, and that’s what I got in our garden Friday afternoon.

One of the hawks who has been hanging out in the woods behind the house swooped in to take a closer look at something, and he presented me with all the pent up beauty he had to offer – almost as if he was some other-worldly being prompted to display his true glory.

Sometimes I get that kind of glimpse of God, and it thrills me to the core of who I am. That’s what it means for followers of Jesus to live on the edge of eternity; sometimes we get a glimpse; sometimes God overwhelms us; mostly, though, we see through a glass dimly…

Peace, and more – DEREK

hawk on our deck