Ponderings One: A Dim Reflection

Today is the quintessential perfect day: warm in the sunshine, cool in the breezes, sunny and bright.

The paint splashes of the Master Artist can be seen in every direction. The delight of a perfect autumn day. It is also Leaf Season in my neighborhood. We call it “autumn” to be nice, really, but in reality there is an underlying dread of all the thousands of pounds of fallen leaves that must be dealt with before the snow falls. I tackled Leaf Session #1 this morning. All evidence will be gone by evening. Such is the way of the leaves.

However, there is value in the raking. The rhythmic timing leaves one’s mind free for pondering. And today, in the perfection of the day, I realized we see but “through a mirror dimly”.

Raking, I was mindful of Sam, Kenn, Barbara and others who lay in beds today hovering between life and death. The day’s beauty is muted by the reality of their inability to enjoy its perfection. I attended Bert’s memorial service yesterday. I ponder both beauty and death and I am reminded: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

I am reminded that the beauty of this day will be so far surpassed by the beauty that awaits us, we cannot fathom that coming reality! I think of the many glorious sights, smells, sounds, moments, places, people that fill my heart with delight daily. These are God’s best gifts to us! Whether we know that Giver or not, he generously bestows so many good, good things upon us. When this dim reflection fades into God’s true glory in the life to come, we will stand in awe. We will not even be able to believe our eyes, or our ears or the hearts that will leap within.

Banish all thoughts of cutesy cherubs and angels with harps. New life will be full of all the good things we so enjoy now, but magnified beyond our wildest dreams! In these thoughts beauty and death come together with less fear and more hope. The quintessential day will be magnified a hundred fold and all those who are ushered into new life will enjoy its perfection forever more.

And so it will go this Leaf Season. I will rake and I will ponder and I will write.

Less fear and more hope.