“I wanted life itself, the color and fire and loveliness of life.”
Sheldon Vanauken
[.sitting in the sunshine at Kedesh Orphanage watching 25 young men enjoy life.]
Story is exploding around me. The air is bursting with fire, for much is here.
This statement is forever true. We are in a constant place of story. We are in a constant place of being able to embrace the whole of every moment. Sometimes, this place reverberates loudly. We stop in our tracks, breathless, for we have stumbled upon a moment of timelessness, a moment echoing of eternity, “a still point of the turning world” (Sheldon Vanauken). These moments are scattered throughout our lives, moments we remember with a smile and a sigh. Moments of brilliance and radiance that surge with color.
[ .a sorrowful goodbye. .a foggy sunrise at the farm on which I grew up.]
These moments often hinge on the grandeur of nature—sunsets on beaches, soaring eagles, exquisite flowers, and snow-capped mountains. Or, they include those we love the most—being curled up next to the one we love, laughing until we can’t breathe with our best friend, holding a sleeping child. We delight in those moments, for our minds are in tune with these glimpses. Our hearts recognize how the beauty occurs, for these “things” are recognizable as lovely.
[.dancing to undulating salsa rhythms on the rooftop of a downtown Louisville skyscraper. .a dusky evening, fireflies dotting the trees like sparkling lights.]
We embrace these moments as fleeting. We watch the fire and loveliness disappear. We watch the world around us slip into greys. We enter back into mundane, back into normalcy. And, we question: Why can’t we continually live in these moments? Why must all the color fade?
[.a crackling fireplace, tea in hand, and conversation long into the night. .watching my young nephews laugh and play. .a night swim in an ocean in Puerto Rico.]
The problem is not that these moments are fleeting. Story-filled moments are in every note of the song of life. The problem lies in that we live life deafened, until the crescendo reaches the climax that momentarily wakes us out of our slumber.
[.a nap with rain falling on a tin roof. .a joyous reunion with ones I love.]
Our hearts were created to remain full of the color and fire and loveliness of life. We were created to live life by the Spirit– a life awakened, a life in recognition of the melody around us—where every moment is set apart, every moment acknowledged as a grace, every moment tasted in full.
May you live with your mind set on what the Spirit desires. May you live according to the Spirit, fully alive because of righteousness. [Romans 8:5,9,10] May you recognize the color and fire and loveliness of life in the whole of every moment.
