Every Common Bush Afire With God
Jacob was in the presence of God and, to begin with, was not aware of it (Gen.28:16). I’m amazed and sobered at times that it is possible to be in the awesome presence of God and yet be switched off to it. Last Sunday morning, in our gathering, we had a brilliant time in worship, with God’s presence strongly felt. And yet even then I know there were those who did not experience it or sense it - and may well have been occupied with lesser things. I was reflecting on this when I came across an extract from a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries
God help us to be constantly aware of his Presence!
April 12th, 2007 @ 4:33 am
Do read or like the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins at all? He was an English Jesuit nature poet from the mid 1800’s.
I just got a site going on Christian nature poetry back in February. No phots yet, though. Some of the stuff is my own, some is from established authors, and some is fresh translations of Biblical poetry.
I’m a Lutheran in America. I’ve played music for Anglican churches. My husband is a Lutheran pastor, but I didn’t include that in the “about me” section of my blog. Sometimes a person just feels a need not to be identified in that way.
I’m about a year older than you, too, but I didn’t put my age or photo in my blog.
I’ll read your blog more in depth as time goes on.