| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 3 |
Page 2 |
God sows a light and gladness for us. He gives us blessings as seeds, which he buries in the furrows of our lives, or hides in the soil, so that they may grow and in due time develop into beauty and fruitfulness. When you look at a seed you do not see all the splendour which will unfold from it at length. All you see is a little brown and unsightly hull which gives no prophecy of the beauty which will spring from it when it is planted and dies and grows up. Many of the beams of light – comfort, strength, joy, and good – that now are so prominent in your life came to you first as unwelcome things. They did not shine as beams of radiant light. They were not glad things. They may have been burdens, disappointments, sufferings, losses, but they were seeds, with life in them. God was sowing light and gladness for you in these experiences which were so unwelcome, so hard to endure.
There are many ways in which God has sown light in the past. Think of the seeds of light sown in the creation and preparation of the earth to be our home. In the account of creation we have a wonderful vision of the divine heart and of God’s love for man, his child. The building of the earth was no accident. It did not spring into being and develop into beauty without thought and purpose. There was divine design in it. From the beginning, God meant the earth to be the home of his children, and so we find love thoughts everywhere. God looked ahead and put in provisions, planned conveniences, stored blessings that would make the earth a happy home for his children, lacking nothing. We have it in the Genesis story. There was only chaos. “The earth was waste and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” A marginal reading is, “The Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters.” The picture which the word suggests is that of a hen sitting on her nest, covering her eggs with her wings, brooding over them. So God brooded over the chaos of the world he was preparing, thinking in love of his children to be, eons hence, and planning for their happiness and good.
Page 2