Do you see?
The WalMart world of dirty floors and cheap plastic and people who walk around in slippers with their pants falling off?
Their teeth, and families and lives broken and worn by cares and worries they can't manage.
Do you smell the thick haze of stale tobacco and heart-ache as they breathe in your face, their cynical, bitterness barely disguising their panic, causing you to gag,
Do you see ?
The beautiful people whose lives consist of selfies and whatever they can grab on their way out. The sun-glassed, glossed and tanned hipsters with their tats and pierced cartilage and pierced hearts.
They promise everything and deliver nothing; using you and enslaving your children to feed their souls and pocketbooks.
They'll take all that you have and leave you for dead. Do you see their heart of corruption and feel the death of usury?
Do you see?
The family that is broken. everyone gone their separate ways, the love and sacrifice and laughter forgotten and mocked. Hardened hearts and hurt fed by lies and rumors and gossip and the bitter relative who didn't get their own way. They leave you broken and battered, smug with self-satisfaction.
Do you see the putrid stench and quivering rot and dirty filth that permeates everything?
It's disgusting. Really.
Way off. There in the distance. There's a pin-point of light.
Do you see it? The light. A path. A narrow way?
I look and see and the light compels me. The path is clear. I follow.
And the light becomes bigger, blinding. My fears and prejudices and despair and haughtiness are burned away.
I want only what's ahead.
The smell of rottenness is replaced by clover and hay, the clean smell of sheep and scratchy wool.
That light, it leads to a humble place where the lowly live. The rush and pushing and striving are gone.
It's just the shepherds and the sheep and the hay.
And there, amidst the light that makes all things clear, is a place of peace.
There is a man and a woman, young and strong, and a baby.
Innocent and sweet, he smells of fresh hay and hope.
And I look at Him and see.
And he sees me.
He is a baby, young and innocent, but also old and wise.
He is Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace.
Do you see? Do you see who has come?
God with us.
Emmanuel.
Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Belén: noviembre 2011
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. ~Isaiah 11:6-9
@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!
The WalMart world of dirty floors and cheap plastic and people who walk around in slippers with their pants falling off?
Their teeth, and families and lives broken and worn by cares and worries they can't manage.
Do you smell the thick haze of stale tobacco and heart-ache as they breathe in your face, their cynical, bitterness barely disguising their panic, causing you to gag,
Do you see ?
The beautiful people whose lives consist of selfies and whatever they can grab on their way out. The sun-glassed, glossed and tanned hipsters with their tats and pierced cartilage and pierced hearts.
They promise everything and deliver nothing; using you and enslaving your children to feed their souls and pocketbooks.
They'll take all that you have and leave you for dead. Do you see their heart of corruption and feel the death of usury?
Do you see?
The family that is broken. everyone gone their separate ways, the love and sacrifice and laughter forgotten and mocked. Hardened hearts and hurt fed by lies and rumors and gossip and the bitter relative who didn't get their own way. They leave you broken and battered, smug with self-satisfaction.
Do you see the putrid stench and quivering rot and dirty filth that permeates everything?
It's disgusting. Really.
Way off. There in the distance. There's a pin-point of light.
Do you see it? The light. A path. A narrow way?
I look and see and the light compels me. The path is clear. I follow.
And the light becomes bigger, blinding. My fears and prejudices and despair and haughtiness are burned away.
I want only what's ahead.
The smell of rottenness is replaced by clover and hay, the clean smell of sheep and scratchy wool.
That light, it leads to a humble place where the lowly live. The rush and pushing and striving are gone.
It's just the shepherds and the sheep and the hay.
And there, amidst the light that makes all things clear, is a place of peace.
There is a man and a woman, young and strong, and a baby.
Innocent and sweet, he smells of fresh hay and hope.
And I look at Him and see.
And he sees me.
He is a baby, young and innocent, but also old and wise.
He is Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace.
Do you see? Do you see who has come?
God with us.
Emmanuel.
Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Belén: noviembre 2011
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. ~Isaiah 11:6-9
@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!
1 comment:
Beautiful, timely reminder to see what God sees!
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