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smallness


The world is charged with the grandeur of God. 
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; 
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. 
Why do men then now not reck his rod? 
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; 
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: 
the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. 
And for all this, nature is never spent; 
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 
And though the last lights off the black West went 
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -- 
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
God's Grandeur by Gerard Manly Hopkins

This morning, as great frosted snowflakes filled the air, invading the emptiness of space and filling it with their soft light, I came to realize, yet again, how incredibly human we are in the face of God's beauty. Overtaken by the immanence of creation, every man and woman becomes a child before their Creator. There are no pretensions, no façades left to hide behind in our frail nakedness before the One who sees all.

This is how we were created to be - walking with our God, open and unashamed. Only in divine simplicity do we see ourselves as in a reflection and Him face-to-Face. Crafted to be loved by Him, indwelt by Him, and captivated by His gaze, our separation from the One who sustains all things by His powerful Word has caused an emptiness that can only be filled by Christ. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him, as Augustine says. Even then, in a sin-soaked world, we are left with an intellect that takes emptiness and non-existence for granted. How I long for my home where all is in God and all is His truth, where, as in the purely natural and super-natural realms, contradictions fade away!

Earthbound it can be so difficult to see myself as God sees me. As with the stars at night, it is only when I look away from my own feeble flicker to Him that I can see even the faintest glimmer of His life in myself. Sometimes it takes the smallness of me in light of God's grandeur to help me realize that I'm here at all. Oh Lord, you have searched me and you do know me. Praise be to your Name.

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: 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 seek him in his temple" (Ps 27:4)
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