After the fire

(the first line was written by Kenneth Slessor)

 

A bird sang in the jaws of night

Its crooning voice was low and sweet.

I listened, crouching, small and still,

And peered through new encircling leaves.

 

The smoky, sombre haze was still

In cleared arena dim and dark,

It hung in softly shadowed poise,

And hid the constant, friendly moon.

 

I looked upon the smoke-hazed orb.

 Sequestered in my hide of leaves

Until a whispered wind arose

And all around was blessed with light.

 

The bird flew down to circled gleam

A gentle light from high above,

Fell softly on the silvered wings;

Its plumage borrowed from the stars.

Susan Starr ©©©

 

 

 

Everything takes time. The sun doesn’t just instantly appear in the sky every morning. It makes its way slowly to our horizon (we actually make our way to it, but let’s not get bogged down with Science). It heralds its coming by the first faint glow of colour, low in the sky. Then it peeps out shyly; just the arc of its great orb showing, like a hiding child peeping up from behind a lounge chair.

It rises relentlessly, gradually, until the full measure of its brilliance shines on all of us from it’s lofty perch in space.

Our lives take time to establish too. It takes time for us to become who we really are and its always a fraught journey. Through the shallows of callow youth we splash our mistakes and gather our joys. We wade to deeper waters. Wide, unknown; exciting and treacherous where sometimes unavoidable currents take us to places we didn’t plan.

If we’re lucky, we find a shore bedecked with happy, fruitful relationships and successful ambitions. It all takes time, and if we are always honest with ourselves, we find out who we really are and why we plotted our course in the way we did.

The flotsam of our mistakes wash up regularly on the shores. Some are driftwood and float off again. Some are great logs of regret and disappointment which never leave.

And overall, is God, whether we acknowledge Him or not. For some of us, He is the anchor in sunny climes. He is the rock in our storm-washed shore. He is the One who will bring our journey to an end. One day the sun will set on all our lives.

In each of us who are called; who have chosen; a growing part of us longs for that Day when the trump shall sound and we will step on to that Other Shore where we will be restored to all our potential; all our failings healed; all our hurts becalmed. We live in this fallen world ever battling our flawed human nature with the other nature; the divine one. We tire of carrying the battle within. Today Lord, we surrender to your Holy Spirit, who can change us, slowly, like the rising sun, from glory to glory, until we are fit for heaven.