the rabbit
somehow tonight i stumbled into a weblog called "correction," and there was a post about a simple, everyday task -- mowing the lawn -- that profoundly affected the blogger b/c he happened to find a baby rabbit that, sadly, died in his hands. simple chore, ordinary day, and suddenly we're face-to-face w/ the beauty of creation and the grace of our god, and we're devestated. just blown away.
i commented that sometimes the things that could seem the most trivial can, in actuality, become very poignant moments in which we are blessed to see god pull the scrim back, in a way, and show us the sacredness of life. it reminds me of frederick buechner's tale (i think it was "the final beast") where he recounts a young man's attempt to force god out into the open so he could have a deeper faith in him. as he lay in a field, calling out to god, straining to see the skies open or hear some divine voice, two tree branches struck together onomatopoetically: "clack-clack." i can't recall all the story, but i remember the man was suddenly struck w/ the beauty of creation, the sanctity of life and the closeness of god. he got his confirmation where he least expected it. the young man remarked, and i'm afraid i must paraphrase, "sometimes 'clack-clack' is all we can bear." for me, it's not the devil that's in the details, but it's god in there. and once we start to see him, we almost can't turn it off.
it's something like what my friend, dennis, told me outside my house late one night -- some people are blessed (cursed?) to see beauty, and even to see christ, in practically everything around them. light poles become crosses; sunsets become theophanies. those who have the gift often want desperately for it to be taken away, while those of us who glimpse it only fleetingly long desperately to recapture it. mystics have it; some of the saints; lord knows joan of arc was probably just eat up w/ it. but the fact is, the grace of god is curious, and sometimes it finds us in the strangest of times and places and acts, even the seemingly insignificant death of a rabbit or the "clack-clack" of branches. look. listen. can you hear it?
i commented that sometimes the things that could seem the most trivial can, in actuality, become very poignant moments in which we are blessed to see god pull the scrim back, in a way, and show us the sacredness of life. it reminds me of frederick buechner's tale (i think it was "the final beast") where he recounts a young man's attempt to force god out into the open so he could have a deeper faith in him. as he lay in a field, calling out to god, straining to see the skies open or hear some divine voice, two tree branches struck together onomatopoetically: "clack-clack." i can't recall all the story, but i remember the man was suddenly struck w/ the beauty of creation, the sanctity of life and the closeness of god. he got his confirmation where he least expected it. the young man remarked, and i'm afraid i must paraphrase, "sometimes 'clack-clack' is all we can bear." for me, it's not the devil that's in the details, but it's god in there. and once we start to see him, we almost can't turn it off.
it's something like what my friend, dennis, told me outside my house late one night -- some people are blessed (cursed?) to see beauty, and even to see christ, in practically everything around them. light poles become crosses; sunsets become theophanies. those who have the gift often want desperately for it to be taken away, while those of us who glimpse it only fleetingly long desperately to recapture it. mystics have it; some of the saints; lord knows joan of arc was probably just eat up w/ it. but the fact is, the grace of god is curious, and sometimes it finds us in the strangest of times and places and acts, even the seemingly insignificant death of a rabbit or the "clack-clack" of branches. look. listen. can you hear it?
posted by Sammy @ 1:15 AM
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