There's a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins I've long loved*, and it is what comes to mind when I think of "sea". It is called "Heaven-Haven" and is subtitled "A nun takes the veil": I have desired to go Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail And a few…
hope: small and glad, day 28
One difference between being small and being large -- in terms of soul-perspectives on oneself, not in terms of physical size -- is that the small one can feel gratitude where the large one feels entitlement. The small one hopes, knowing that she deserves nothing. And yet she hopes confidently: not because she is worthy, but because…
whisper “perhaps”: small and glad, days 26 & 27
So you whisper that you're afraid. Or don't whisper, because you're afraid to put words to it. And you wonder why you? Why not someone brave? Someone less prone to worries; someone who progresses in large, confident strides through the centers of rooms; someone who loves adventure more than safety? May I whisper back that perhaps…
CRASH: small and glad, day 25
It is the sound of flood waters destroying life on earth (Genesis 7:17-24) It is thunder from Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:18). It is Jericho's walls tumbling down (Joshua 6:20). It is Goliath's huge frame felled (1 Samuel 17:49). It is heavenly fire consuming Elijah's water-soaked sacrifice (1 Kings 18:30-39). It is tables turned over in the temple…
silence: small and glad, day 24
Rain comes in a sudden roar on the roof, and after weeks of silent skies and crisping vegetation, I find myself just listening. Listening. I am smallest and most glad when I take the time to listen. God enjoins silence in Psalm 46:10 -- "Be still, and know that I am God" -- and in…
Five Minute Friday: joy (small and glad, day 23)
(You'll notice that I've skipped days 21 and 22 . . . because I missed them. And I might catch up sometime, but today is day 23, so I'm writing it.) The RSVPs have been coming in. It's amazing how small and glad this makes me feel. Overwhelmed really, that so many people are willing to…
temporary: small and glad, day 20
I don't like temporary, but I live in temporary. I shelve books that I know will have to be unshelved again, one day; tacking things to walls with timid hammer-strokes, knowing that I'll have to pull the nails out again. In C. S. Lewis' Perelandra, his Adam- and Eve-like characters are given only one command: they…
offer; worth: small and glad, days 17 & 18
The lives which we give Him were already blood-bought, made valuable only because He considered them worth dying for. This is the wonder of His kingdom. He makes His murderers into His children. He makes the fearful ones into front-line fighters. He makes the foolish ones into teachers. He made Moses, who struggled to speak, into…
green: small and glad, day 16 (FMF)
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green, To declare that the Lord…
laugh: small and glad, day 15
Sometimes it's the pure joy of the unexpected: a hundred-year-old man and his ninety-year-old wife conceiving a son? Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" (Genesis 17:17)…
Between Blue Rocks 