When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
1 comment:
Something I read...
There is a Land beyond the river. A perfect Land, not flawed like our own. The journey to this Land is so difficult, it requires perfection. Since no one is perfect, none of the people are able to make it to the Land. None. No matter how good.
No one that is, except the Landkeeper. His perfection allows him to dwell in the Land. He's perfectly loving, but also perfectly just, and perfect justice cannot admit the guilty to the perfect Land, or its perfection would be spoiled. And the people are all guilty of many things.
They were not a bad people you understand, not necessarily criminals or unethical in business dealings, etc. Some were simply rather self-centered, as all of us can be at times. Still, a perfectly just Landkeeper cannot allow guilt to go free without ceasing to be perfectly just --just as a jury which has allowed an offender to go free and commit further offenses has not served justice.
Perfection is the Landkeeper's nature and He cannot go against His nature without ceasing to be Himself. So neither His perfect justice, nor His perfect love will allow Him to let the people do whatever they want and just say, "Aw, that's OK. Come into My perfect Land anyway." But because of this perfect love, He cannot stand to be apart from His people either.
Of course, this leaves Him with a dilemma (that is, for you and me it would be a dilemma, but the Landkeeper knows exactly what He's going to do). Perfect justice demands a penalty, but perfect love demands reconciliation. So He decided to pay the passage Himself. He sent His son to our land, who willingly sacrificed Himself, allowing Himself to be executed in our stead to pay for our admission to the Land. But some of us have ignored the Land, the Landkeeper and His son's sacrifice. The problem is, all of us will have to leave this land sooner or later. Those who take advantage of the Son's sacrifice will be admitted to the Land. The rest will go elsewhere. You have a choice. Do you know for which land you are bound?
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