Powerful Reminders
Eugene Peterson, in his deep soul-oriented book on the Christian life, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, draws an image from the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem: As Kingfishers Catch Fire
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces
Peterson wants us to remember that our lives are not items of relative insignificance. No, they are powerful reminders of who Jesus is and the hope that we have in Him. Peterson writes, “The Christian life is lived with others and for others. Nothing can be done alone or solely for oneself. In an age of heightened individualism, it is easy to assume that the Christian life is primarily what I am responsible for on my own. But neither self-help nor selfishness has any standing in spiritual theology. … We are placed in the community (church) formed by Christ’s Holy Spirit and become full participants in all that the risen Christ does, living resurrection lives.”
Did you hear the significance and energy in that last line? Our lives are to be lived in Christ, as full participants enjoying and abiding in His presence and love. And then to live out the power of the resurrection in our everyday lives. We are not the same as we once were. We are now God’s children, in God’s family, and heirs of all God’s spiritual blessings.
Our lives as Christians are to be powerful reminders of who Jesus is, what He can do in us, and in this way, a hopeful beacon to those around us.
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces