Why you believe what you believe I

inked · 12-06-2004, 10:20 PM

Nurv, just for you...

"We do not merely want to SEE beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put in to words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves - that, though we cannot, yet these projections can enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace and power of which Nature is the image.
... At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and puity of the morning but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get IN. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. ... Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol which Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects." CS Lewis, THE WEIGHT OF GLORY and Other Addresses, page 16-17, Macmillan paperback 1980.

Beauty is one aspect of God which delights our appreciation of Himself, His Creation, His creatures; - even in those creatures who produce modern art for which I have no taste at all - but others may! As St Paul advised "whatsoever things are pure, ...just, ...wise, ... beautiful, think on these things" which is good earthly advice and good spiritual advice and good ETERNAL advice!

PS Nurv, I bet you could find a Swedish Bible story book aimed at young children to practice your language/reading skills and learn basic stories! Never mess with a former TA: "We have ways of making you learn AND you will LIKE it!!"

12-06-2004, 10:20 PM	#11
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Nurv, just for you... "We do not merely want to SEE beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put in to words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves - that, though we cannot, yet these projections can enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace and power of which Nature is the image. ... At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and puity of the morning but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get IN. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch. ... Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol which Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects." CS Lewis, THE WEIGHT OF GLORY and Other Addresses, page 16-17, Macmillan paperback 1980. Beauty is one aspect of God which delights our appreciation of Himself, His Creation, His creatures; - even in those creatures who produce modern art for which I have no taste at all - but others may! As St Paul advised "whatsoever things are pure, ...just, ...wise, ... beautiful, think on these things" which is good earthly advice and good spiritual advice and good ETERNAL advice! PS Nurv, I bet you could find a Swedish Bible story book aimed at young children to practice your language/reading skills and learn basic stories! Never mess with a former TA: "We have ways of making you learn AND you will LIKE it!!" __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 12-06-2004 at 10:23 PM.