From the Rhodeside

 

 

An all time favourite verse of mine is Colossians 1:16, “For through Christ God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through Christ and for Christ.”

Phillip Berryman, former Catholic Priest and now married with three children, Professor of Latin American Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and author, exegetes this passage brilliantly,  “This entire universe, these star above our heads, these forests, these birds, these insects, these rivers, and these stones, everything, everything, is…preserved, transfigured and made temple of the Blessed Trinity. And we…live in a grand house, as in a single family, minerals, vegetables, animals, and humans with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." 

 

Can we stretch our imaginations this far!

The same can be said of all the great literature, poetry, music, art, movies, drama and entertainment. By great I eliminate the abundance of garbage that is also out there, much does not belong with our single family in union with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but much does.

We live in a most beautiful and unified world, actually, where all good things are joined together and belong together. But we need faith and imagination to see this.

The Navajo people of New Mexico in America capture this in a prayer they say,

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty again

It has become beauty again

It has become beauty again

It has become beauty again

The same for us, pray God, may we too walk in the beauty all around us, and within.