A Moment Aside ---- 30 July 2020

A Moment Aside ---- 30 July 2020

     I really like this photograph. It speaks to me of creation, of simplicity and gentleness, of peace, and of Francis of Assisi. However, it is a fantasy. It’s a photo of a stature with a blue bird caught just at the right moment. The bird is not listening to Francis nor is the statue speaking to Sister Bird (as that man would call the bird.) It is an artful photo caught at an opportune time.

     And it speaks to me still. I love it. It may not be the truth, but it points to the truth and it may be what I want to be the truth. Much that goes on around us speaks of the Divine if we tune our ear to it. It is faith that can see the thumbprint of the Creator in creation. Without faith, it’s all just “stuff” in the truest sense of that word. What beauty exists in creation pulls at the human spirit to go beyond itself.

     These words were written in about 1247 by a friar of the Franciscan order who wrote the first biographies of Francis of Assisi:

In art he praises the Artist;
whatever he discovers in creatures
he guides to the Creator.
     He rejoices in all the works of the Lord’s hands, [Ps 92:5]
and through their delightful display
he gazes on their life-giving reason and cause.
In beautiful things he discerns Beauty Itself;
     all good things cry out to him: [Gen 1:31]
     “The One who made us is the Best.” [Ps 100:3]
Following the footprints imprinted on creatures,
     he follows his Beloved everywhere; [Job 23:11, Song 5:17, Matt 12:18]

     out of them all he makes for himself a ladder [Gen 28:12-13]
     by which he might reach the Throne. [Jb 23:3]

He embraces all things
with an intensity of unheard devotion,
speaking to them about the Lord
and exhorting them to praise Him.

-      ( From Thomas Celano’s 1247 work about Saint Francis of  Assisi “The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul”)

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.                               -- Martin Luther

     So look out the window once in a while.