Presence 9: Arts That Inspire Reflection & PrayerSample

 Strange Greatness

 I found God once

In the shade of a magnolia tree,

Where summer’s carefreeness and the flower’s endurance

Divulged secrets of greatness.

A quiet liberation.

I met God again

Mid-winter,

When the white that cloaked my world

Shifted 

From suffocating storm 

To endless purity 

Falling and filling wherever there was open space.

A soft whisper.  

I saw God in a roving machine on Mars,

In science and mechanics and 

Minds I do not understand.

The joy of exploration

Carried on currents

Of perseverance.

A searching, a finding.

I think I heard God once in a flock of geese.

A quirky chorus, out of tune, but

“Let the creatures sing what they wish!”

I agree.

A freedom, an autonomy.

I think I see God

Mostly in Jesus.

The lowliness draws my attention.

The kindness, the weeping, the feasting,

The breaking of traditions.

The befriending, the tending, the walking.

Then there’s the dying

The bleeding

The lack of retaliating.

A slow letting go

Of the body, the spirit.

The greatness nobody expected.

The hero nobody wanted.

The only one there will ever be.

Jessica Cotten