This gladness in God is as a deep river; we have only as yet touched its brink, we know a little of its clear sweet, heavenly streams, but onward the depth is greater, and the current more impetuous in its joy.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
Some nights or deep mornings you can hear it.
It is like the sound of many waters, but Deeper, Brighter and infinitely full of Clarity.
He speaks through His Word, through a friend, through an event, or a circumstance – and just for a moment everything comes into focus. The manifold wisdom of G_d begins to come into view and our spirits yield to the full beauty of the Spirit who is showing us His truth.
We see through the simple (yet profoundly true) meaning of a passage to two and three and four and more just as true truths in a passage. Or, even more profoundly, we begin to see eternity bursting forth among, in and through His Words to us. Names, places, times, items and themes in Scripture show themselves to be the entirely integrated full-gospel they indeed claim to be.
In these moments it is like observing a huge laminar flow of a water column rushing past and through. The whole movement is cohesive and purposeful. Everything makes sense; everything is going in the same direction. And then… have you ever seen?… Oh my G_d.
Beloved, He is beautiful beyond any word ever written. The only thing we observe is probably something like a reflection of a glint of light, from a jewel, on the train of His robe, refracting through the water. Anything more, and we surely would not survive.
Yet, in that moment where joy is as full as we’ve ever known, we reach out to touch one of the layers of that parallel flow. And just as our finger touches the edge, the flow explodes into a myriad spray of sparkling lightful colorful droplets – and moves away like some untraceable Wind. It is not gone, but everything is different.
In moments like this we begin to see that what awaits us simply cannot be described. He is wonderful beyond the deepest imagination of the most imaginative child. And the joy He imparts gives birth to diamond-hard strength for the next moment and all others to follow.
We get it sometimes… almost.
For three things I thank God every day of my life:
thanks that He has vouchsafed me knowledge of His works;
deep thanks that He has set in my darkness the lamp of faith;
deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to—
a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song.
~Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968)
