Pearl of Greatest Price

Orbital Sunrise

…And to see the sun come rising
upon this gently-curved horizon;
to see the spreading glow begin
around its silver-shining rim,
and leap up in a sudden blaze,
shooting rainbow-colored rays
across a gleaming arc of sky…
I have never seen a sunrise.

Earthview

And I wonder to behold
the beauty of this blue-green globe,
our planet-mother spread before me
like a slow-unfolding dream.

The rippled currents of her breathing,
the circulations of her bloodstream,
the rippled trains of cloud that pass
across each continental mass;

The scattered waves of woolly fleece
across her blue and shining seas;
feathered, streaming energies,
sworls and whirling vortices…
Who could look upon this sight
and say that she is not alive?

Thus to see her one and whole,
imaged in this spinning globe…
Oh, that we had eyes to see
what that oneness really means!

Windows

…Our Ark, our spaceship Earth
pictured here in microcosm, 3-D displays,
and in this giant globe…
Here's our Front Range, the Rockies,
and all the Earth's ranges,
the backbones of continents,
the spines of the seas,
raised up in dramatic relief.
Ice cap and tundra, forest and steppe,
plateau and desert, islands, trenches:
how the whole mosaic fits together,
cohering into one great design,
an organic unity!

My fingers trace its contours, its roundness;
and I start to wonder: --who can comprehend this?
Can anyone but astronauts or mystics imagine
the holy mystery, the naked whole reality
of which this is but the visible image?
--Infinite treasure, pearl beyond all price,,
this vast and gentle, rolling, living Earth,
our mother,
cradle and treasury of all we've been
and will be;
of all our memories, reasons, relics,
languages, arts, imaginations,
creeds and cultures and traditions;
all that tells us, tells me
who I am, who we are:
Wintry woodland and sunset plain,
rainstorm and rainbow,
crickets in a cornfield, ducklings in a pond...

O God, if you may be seen at all
through mortal eyes,
may You not be seen in this Earth,
and in things of Earth?
--How else are we to know of even Heaven?

I close my eyes and picture this roundness,
its blue shining seas, white swirling clouds,
green-swathed continents crowned in white peaks,
and begin to catch a glimmer of Your glory;
in its gentleness begin to see Your goodness,
in its radiance begin to see Your face,
in its wholeness begin to see Your essence,
Your unity, Your holiness, Your love.
And if I could but see through this mask
and penetrate the substance of the very Being
unfolding now before me,
then I might begin to grasp, to see
what I've spent a lifetime seeking.

No, I cannot possess you,
rolling Beauty,
but I would somehow comprehend you;
hold your hidden essence like a jewel in my hand,
in my heart,
O pearl of greatest price!

Genesis

Hosts of unseen angels
plucking hidden strings;
particle-wave interchanging
song-seed energy vibrations,
cosmic music of the Word
becoming light and color,
sound and form;
electron, proton, neutron,
atom, matter, element,
star and galaxy and planet,
organism, biosphere,
you and I speaking here…
the never-ending dawn
of what we are.

Overlook

This home town scene unfolds below,
church, school, courthouse in a row,
and those four houses in a row
where I lived so long ago.
I just saw them; they're so small;
but, I was only three feet tall!
Portage channel's shining blue
winds between green hills and through
the contours of the towns below
as it did so long ago.
The silver towers of the bridge
were framed against this verdant ridge
whenever I looked out my window;
heart and crossroads of my world
when I was nearer to the ground.
I'd never seen what lay beyond.
But the beauty that I saw was mine,
and it was enough……for a time.

My world is so much wider now;
the mountain skies of Colorado,
the golden shores of California;
Europe, even India.
I've traveled clear across the globe,
this Earth, the only home I know.

Yet, as I stand upon this hill,
I suddenly can't help but feel
that someday even Earth will seem
a faded relic or a dream;
a place to come back and remember,
walk the streets and say "I lived here;
this tiny spinning blue-green ball
was all my world when I was small;
all I ever knew and loved,
hills of green with blue above.
All its beauty was as mine,
and it was enough for a time…"

But, I may well have to say then
that I'd never have imagined
the glories that yet lay beyond;
all the endless seas of God.

Ocean Night

Pure and blessed holy night,
unmarred by noise and city lights…

No bird sings its evening song,
no irons wheels shake the ground;
no man walks, no dog barks;
just the muted, rhythmic roar
of the waves upon the shore,
the rustling of leaves
in the greenwood over me,
flashing silver, and beyond,
the dark night and the stars.

Ocean-night, deep and holy,
framed in hills and sky and sea,
and the good earth under me:
Night, the way God meant it to be,
one with sleep and dream.