Glimpses of God
By Eileen Dooling, RSM
Posted on
During a few days off recently, I enjoyed the novel All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a Pulitzer Prize winner. This powerful and moving book focuses on two young people during World War II, one from Germany and one from France, and their efforts to be good to one another during the most trying of circumstances.
During this same time off, I stayed in a mountain cabin where I was visited by elk, deer, a mother bear and her two cubs, enjoyed a snow storm and moderate hikes, and watched flamboyant sunrises and sunsets. It became apparent to me that these experiences of good reading, nature and beauty were really glimpses of God in my life. The glimpse was brief and incomplete, but in it I sensed a truth, if only for the moment: I knew the goodness of God and the goodness of people. I sensed the brevity of life and the gift that life is. I realized again that all creation is sacred and a revelation of God. This morning as I prayed, I watched the night yield to day, and I was reminded of those earlier manifestations of God. My reflection led me to consider the importance of spaciousness in my life... the room to be free, if only for the moment, of what crowds my mind and heart. It is not as easy to notice God in the "bits and pieces" of my everyday life as it is when I step away. My challenge is to find God in the hard stuff of life, as well as in the beauty. I bet that is the same for all of us. And so, in the spirit of the humanity we share with one another, and in the spirit of our efforts to know God in creation and in each other, I offer you one of my favorite poems by Denise Levertov, Primary Wonder.
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
May we enjoy glimpses of God in those with whom we share life and love during this coming holiday season. And may we find some bit of time to open our minds and hearts, and allow the "quiet mystery" to enter in.
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