Last night at work I was watching a fascinating nature show on the ecosystem around the Andes in South America. It's an amazing part of the world...some areas have "never" received rain for as far back as we can tell. I learned that "zorro" is the Spanish word for fox- which makes me like Zorro even more now... and there were lots of new info that I found fascinating...which is rare because I've been a rapid consumer of nature shows since my earliest days.
Anyway, at one point in the show these penguins came marching in from the coast to lay their eggs in the warm sand of the desert. They DON'T belong on land...they're so ungainly- staggering around here and there like a drunken sailor in a hurricane. My first thought was, "They aren't made for that." Sure, they can get around...but once you see a penguin in the water...oh my goodness. They literally fly through the water...they were "born to swim." It got me pondering...what are humans "born" to do...what's our ocean? Very simply...God is our ocean. But some elements that make up His whole marine environment for us include:
1. Communion. That deep intimate sharing of persons. Divine persons and human; in this life and then fully in the Communion of Saints together with God in Eternity.
2. Work. We need purpose and meaning...it's no coincidence that God assigned the task of work to Original Man BEFORE the fall...original sin just made it more difficult for us.
3. Play. Children don't get this wrong; play is a crucial aspect to humanity. In another nature show this adventurer in a tropical jungle looked up as he was hacking through and there was THE MOST beautiful flower about twenty feet up in the tree. Bear Grylls was swept away...you could see him shine and he shared that he always believed that those type of things were examples of the "extravagance of God" - there's so much beauty in those jungles that no eye will ever see- but God- perhaps in a moment of Divine Play- willed it to Be.
4. Prayer. Could go with all the three above... it's all about communion, it is work, and it is play. We should pray when we work and play; we should work at our prayer and play; and we should play with our work and prayer. They are the Trinity of Communion and when we dwell in them we dwell in the Ocean of God's Love.
Out of that Ocean we are ungainly and our beings make no sense...but when we immerse ourselves in lose ourselves in it's depths...drawing our nourishment from it, our enjoyment, our intimacy...wow! We find the meaning of our lives.
Anyway, at one point in the show these penguins came marching in from the coast to lay their eggs in the warm sand of the desert. They DON'T belong on land...they're so ungainly- staggering around here and there like a drunken sailor in a hurricane. My first thought was, "They aren't made for that." Sure, they can get around...but once you see a penguin in the water...oh my goodness. They literally fly through the water...they were "born to swim." It got me pondering...what are humans "born" to do...what's our ocean? Very simply...God is our ocean. But some elements that make up His whole marine environment for us include:
1. Communion. That deep intimate sharing of persons. Divine persons and human; in this life and then fully in the Communion of Saints together with God in Eternity.
2. Work. We need purpose and meaning...it's no coincidence that God assigned the task of work to Original Man BEFORE the fall...original sin just made it more difficult for us.
3. Play. Children don't get this wrong; play is a crucial aspect to humanity. In another nature show this adventurer in a tropical jungle looked up as he was hacking through and there was THE MOST beautiful flower about twenty feet up in the tree. Bear Grylls was swept away...you could see him shine and he shared that he always believed that those type of things were examples of the "extravagance of God" - there's so much beauty in those jungles that no eye will ever see- but God- perhaps in a moment of Divine Play- willed it to Be.
4. Prayer. Could go with all the three above... it's all about communion, it is work, and it is play. We should pray when we work and play; we should work at our prayer and play; and we should play with our work and prayer. They are the Trinity of Communion and when we dwell in them we dwell in the Ocean of God's Love.
Out of that Ocean we are ungainly and our beings make no sense...but when we immerse ourselves in lose ourselves in it's depths...drawing our nourishment from it, our enjoyment, our intimacy...wow! We find the meaning of our lives.
3 comments:
amen!
Well done, Joshie! By the way, I've left you an award on my site. Stop by to pick it up. :)
Very insightful! I think this is why my husband loves being an artist so much. When he is painting he's doing all four things- work, play, prayer and then the ultimate "communion' of sharing his thoughts in a tangible way with a future viewer. I'll have to share your post with him.
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