Take off your shoes...and look!

I have a friend named Matt (check out Matt's music here or an MP3 sample here - he's the most profound song writer that I have ever experienced - and I'm only a little biased.) who lives in the southern United States. We’ve been friends since university. He usually comes to visit “Supernatural British Columbia” at least once a year. I am always amazed by what he says is his favourite thing to do in BC -- look. That’s right, he can spend hours just looking at Mt. Cheam, at an endless field of corn waving in the breeze, or at the salmon as they run. It’s all so new to him, so breath-taking. He says things like, “How do you get anything done here with all this incredible beauty to look at?” And I, of course, don’t really have an answer. The sad reality is that I tend to miss all those images that fill Matt with wonder and amazement. Life is busy, I have a wife and children, a job, and there’s not much time left over for “looking”.

When Matt leaves I’m always challenged to realize what we have here in the Fraser Valley. I have to admit that he’s right. Life moves so fast that I often miss something truly fantastic. It takes someone with a new perspective to remind me of the magnificence of the everyday. Henry W. Longfellow wrote,

"If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change. But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity. To most, only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.”

The world all around us has much to say.

Most of the poetry in the Bible was written by a shepherd named David. He spent hours out in the hills caring for the sheep and doing just what my friend Matt does - looking. He began to see beyond what was there to the One who brought it into being. David wrote,

“The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

As I was thinking about these things I came across a quote by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in a file I keep of tidbits that have impacted my life. It seems to sum up what I'm trying to say in this blog.

“Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God. But only He who sees takes off His shoes.”

In the hurry of our lives we often miss something very important. God is calling to us. He’s reminding us of not only His power, but also of His love. A love that gives us beauty to behold, to enjoy. Take some time to look. And then listen. Take off your shoes. This is holy ground. God has something to say to you.