“Can you solve the mysteries of God?
Can you discover everything about the Almighty?
Such knowledge is higher than the heavens—
and who are you?
It is deeper than the underworld[a]—
what do you know?
It is broader than the earth
and wider than the sea.” – Job 11:7-9
So yesterday I got an email from my publisher asking for a new “author mug-shot” for their updated website. Who knows, maybe they will sell a few books!
Anyway, I dove into my files to see if I had anything recent and suitable. I couldn’t find anything that looked even vaguely like how I’d like to present as an author, so I am going to have to come up with something fresh (watch this space).
But I did find this, taken along the banks of the Neuse River here in Raleigh. The photograph tugged at my heartstrings and made me think about what an absolutely great dog she was and how much we miss our beautiful Scoutie.
Facebook messing with me!
Then, as if Facebook is quite literally messing with me (and I’m not discounting the possibility that it does!), the picture (below) featuring Scoutie and Rebekah popped up this morning as a memory.
The image was captured on the back porch of our home in Brandon, Florida, not long before we moved to North Carolina.
Emotional wallop!
I am amazed sometimes at the emotional impact a simple photograph can deliver. It is just a moment frozen in time, a fraction of a second (in this case 1/250th). Yet that is exactly where we live, in moments of consciousness that are at once both immeasurably small and incomprehensibly huge.
As both a theologian and a philosopher I love the imprecision of it. We like to believe that time is laid out in discrete, finite linear increments like inches on a ruler, but I appreciate and embrace the logical non-sequitur that 1/250th of a second can contain several years of love and emotion, and a shot-glass of time can hold an ocean of life and relationships.
Truth:
But this is how it is with truth. We have neither the language nor the science to explain or demonstrate the inadequacy of facts when it comes to understanding or defining spiritual truth. But we do have the depth perception, we do have the intuitive sense, and we do have the raw material of spiritual acumen that allows us to begin to peel back the layers – and if not reach in at least to rub at the surface and to clear the lens enough to peer through.
- Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise. - Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render; oh, help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee. – Walter Smith, 1876
In wonder, and in joy – DEREK