(To gain a further understanding of the meditation that follows, a reading of the suggested scriptures will be most helpful. The Editorial Notes at the end of the post may prove to be beneficial)
Suggested Scriptures: Psalm 23
Acts 9: 1 – 22
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. There is a thought-provoking couplet in his poem,” A Prayer for the past.”It reads:
“Father, in joy our knees we bow;
This earth is not a place of tombs:
We are but in the nursery now;
They in the upper rooms.”(1)
Indeed it would be the expected thing to do, to bow the knees in joy, before God, if we possess more decisive proof that this earth is not a place of tombs! Encourage an individual to recall some of the most beautiful experiences they can remember, and in a moment, with a sob, they relate how many of such experiences now inhabit the graves of what used to be. Spend an afternoon visiting your local senior’s complex, mingle again with some of the people who just a few short years ago were the undisputed leaders in your community, and then tell me, there is no evidence of ‘change and decay in all around you see.” Where are the treasured dreams of yester-years? Where is the evidence of the sacrifices made, and the exquisite beauty of love’s transforming power? What about that daughter or son for whom no words are adequate to describe your love, and your sense of pride, as the time comes for them to ” leave the nest.” Then one day you learn they have joined the company of ‘ the prodigal’ in that ‘ far country,’ as in the story that Jesus tells. ( Luke 15: 11 – 32). A confident son finds the far country irresistible and consequently wastes all that he possesses for naught. ” This earth is not a place of tombs”? Tell someone else that! Indeed it is a place of tombs, and one of those tombs holds a part of your heart! And I have said nothing at all of the graveyards you visit, and from which you forever turn away, with leaden steps.
What can one do when he comes upon George Macdonald on bended knee, engaging in prayer to God, but kneel beside him, for we each have much for which we should offer our thanks? But we grow hesitant upon hearing MacDonald thanking God,”That the earth is not a place of tombs. ” Our witness weighs too heavily upon our hearts for that assertion. O God, help us that we might learn the captivating secret his words intend!
There is further startling evidence that George Macdonald is not the only one propounding this mystery. The infinitesimal details originating here on earth, concerning an individual’s life, do not pass away forgotten as a dream, to lie silent in death forever. Hear further, the more extensive view of George MacDonald, on this matter:
” I think that nothing made is lost,
That not a moon has ever shone,
That not a cloud my eyes hath crossed
But to my soul hath gone.(italics are mine)
That all the lost years gathered lie
In this The casket, my dim soul;
And Thou wilt, once, the key apply,
And show the shining whole. ( 1)
Now hear some details associated with that well-known classic,”The Lost Chord.”The author, Sir Arthur Sullivan is suffering deep emotions, as he sits beside the bed of his dying brother, Fred. There he composed those brilliant lyrics. The poem tells the story of one who while, sad, and tired, sits at the organ, and begins to play. No particular melody is in his mind at the outset. But suddenly, inadvertently he strikes a chord of music that sounds like a triumphant expression of a great Amen. The organist never ceases in his efforts to reproduce the sound but is unsuccessful. A disturbing thought crosses his mind; perhaps the great chord may be lost forever? Then this sound conviction arrives:
” It may be that death’s bright angel
will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heav’n
I shall hear that grand Amen.” (2)
Furthermore, the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments bear witness to this magnanimous fact, that what has been, is safest from the ravages of time; safe from the withering that often occurs to our physical faculties. Every experience is kept safe in ‘the casket of one’s soul, and one day, God will reveal the whole of the soul’s content.
Let me call attention to what is one of the most familiar texts of the Old Testament, ” The Twenty-third Psalm. Because God revealed Himself to the author of this Psalm, at some earlier juncture in his life, he is confident that no evil can harm him. His soul is restored. It is a vessel designed by God, to preserve one’s personal experiences so that nothing is finally lost.
The Psalmist will not always find a walk beside the still waters, or a quiet rest in the green pastures refreshing, or even remotely possible. He may occasionally find himself in the tormenting, and even dangerous company of hostile people! But the ecstasy of that moment in which God revealed Himself as the author’s Shepherd, is secure in the ‘casket of his soul, to which God holds the key. It is God who determines the time and place to apply the key and show the shining whole. “Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the House of The Lord, forever.”(Psalm 23:6)
The New Testament has many poignant reminders of God’s involvement in the protection of our treasures, “from the moth, and rust that destroy ” (Matthew 6: 19 – 21) and, from the repulsive forces of the earth that would abandon our treasures to lie unremembered forever in’ the tomb.
The evidence is almost on every page of St Paul’s recorded life’s history. God ‘applies the key’to the ‘casket of his soul’ during the Damascus Road experience, to show Paul the immediate contents of his present life. Paul reviews the not so moving experiences of his life still remaining in ‘ the casket of his soul. One more look in the direction of his shameful acts permits Paul to see that the unceasing activity of God’s Grace upon one’s shameful deeds, will transform them to be a revelation of the unconditional Love of God, and add to the realization of God’s victory.
Then without hesitation, Paul recommends to all, the ecstasy of the resulting new creation. The propulsive power behind each undertaking becomes the firm belief: ” I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The treasures resulting from one’s appropriation of that type of belief are of inestimable worth. But there is yet awaiting Paul an even more inexpressible moment of ecstasy. He confesses:
” Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart, what God has prepared for those that love Him.”
(1 Corinthians 2:9). Not even Paul with his profound wisdom can comprehend the inestimable value of those treasures which remain with God until we view them with Heavenly eyes. Paul, writing to the Corinthians in seeking their enlightenment says: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Everyone has far more valuable treasures than they have ever realized. We will not fully comprehend the vastness of their wealth during our sojourn here on earth. That which we see with the physical eye can only be partial, at very best. Not until the morning breaks and the shadows flee, will we see the whole shining content of our souls. And then, please God, what will number among the most luminous of our treasures will be the faithfulness and the mercy of God!
PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION
Merciful Father, we are struck with silence. Our feeble brains cannot find the words to transcribe what our hearts are feeling! Just for us to try and grasp the extent of Your knowledge of each one of us earth-dwellers, and to know that unconditional love accompanies Your insight into each of us is silencing. You go on believing in each one, in spite of our messing up so frequently.
Thank You for the gift of memory whichYou have given to us. It is Your wisdom that has placed this unspeakable gift of memory into such vessels of clay. Perhaps You would have us know, that the totality of all of our remembered experiences is not all that is visible to You in Heaven. You see everything, and You keep it all safe and secure to present to us at the appropriate time! The small act of kindness that I may not even remember; the word of hope which I may speak to someone in doubt, is far more crucial in your view than I might realize. My failures and my sins, which for long have weighed me down, and the secret sins I do not see, which when You observe with eyes of Compassion, offer me renewed Hope for eternity. “The very way You see things, and the way You interpret them, is never our way!
” My ways are not your ways, neither are your thoughts, My thoughts, says the Lord”!
We praise You that Jesus so forcefully and so beautifully reveals to this world the Glory of our Salvation, which allows us to one day stand with Him in Your Presence “and tell the story of His saving Grace.”He will repeat in Your hearing the truth at the heart of His Story of the Prodigal Son;” This is Your son; this is Your daughter, who was dead, and is alive again; who was lost and is found.” Amen.
HYMN: The Lord’s Prayer – Andrea Bocelli
EDITORIAL NOTES
Here and throughout the text of this meditation, the quotations from the Holy Bible are from the New International Translation, Unless otherwise noted in the text.
- George MacDonald. A Prayer For The Past. https://www.best-poems.net/poem/a-prayer-for-the-past-all-sights-and-sounds-of-day-and-yea-by-george-macdonald.html
- Sir Arthur Sullivan. The Lost Chord. http://www.james-joyce-music.com/songb_19_lyrics.html
- PHOTO: ” Discovering Lost Treasures” is my title for a recent photo of Vera remembering one of her favorite places from her childhood home at Crescent Lake, Robert’s Arm, Newfoundland.