'...the truth of colour: the containment of all colour within light; the infinite pattern of the prism, the spectrum; and the rays of light...' Photo: André Hofmeister / flickr CC.
'...the truth of colour: the containment of all colour within light; the infinite pattern of the prism, the spectrum; and the rays of light...' Photo: André Hofmeister / flickr CC.
During Meeting for Worship recently it was brought home to me by some ministry that we should not – need not – dwell so much on the problems of the world. They will come and go, always. We should not be preoccupied with fathoming the nature of God, Jesus, or any other ‘religious’ subject. We should dwell on the things that are eternal not, as it says Colossians 3:2, ‘on things on the earth’.
So, that got me thinking more deeply along the lines of eternity and eternality. What is eternal? What is unchangeable, everlasting and infinite? The person quoting the passage spoke about love – not human love, as so often it can fall far short of being eternal! But Love: ‘the Love that will not let me go’ (as described by Scottish hymn writer George Matheson); the Love that dwells at the heart of creation and continues to create, maintain and sustain all the life of the universe; in fact, the universe itself. This is eternal.
But, within this universe there exist other absolutes: abstract things that influence us all, day and night – things most of us take for granted, but without which there would only be unimaginable chaos. I thought about the truth behind all music: the harmonics that never change; the ever-constant ordering of the intervals; and the fine balance between minute changes of pitch and tone. There followed on from this the truth of colour: the containment of all colour within light; the infinite pattern of the prism, the spectrum; and the rays of light which enable us to see the colour in everything. How would it be if grass suddenly turned red one day and purple the next? Or the sky became black? We expect things to radiate their individual and ‘correct’ colour – we can be sure it will happen.
There is also an unchanging order in numerology: two and two will always make four. How could we cope if figures worked in totally different ways each time we tried to add them up? In fact, the only way we know it is wrong is because it isn’t ‘right’! It doesn’t conform to the eternal, universal pattern of what numbers do. These universal absolutes cannot change: they are immutable, infinite, ‘things that are eternal’.
Everything that is exists firstly as an idea in the infinite mind before it manifests in form. Therefore, its eternal life is that idea, designed according to an unchanging plan, created as perfect in mind, and eventually returning to that perfection. What is visible to us is not its eternal life, but the outward expression of that infinite, spiritual idea, which never changes.
Even where there is damage to the life, sustained before birth, or at a later date, the perfect knowledge of its pattern, or design, exists permanently and forever in mind. The plan or pattern cannot be changed and is part of eternity forever. The concept or idea of a daffodil (or any flower, plant or thing) still exists even when the physical circumstances, the earthly conditions, for its flowering are not in evidence. It still exists perfectly in the eternal mind. This is its spiritual life and this is because of the constant, unchanging eternality of the universal pattern.
Contemplating the unchangeableness of these things, I found myself in possession of a quiet joy – a joy that gave thanks for the infinite perfection and unchangeable order within which we live and move and have our being.
I think this is what Julian of Norwich meant when she wrote: ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’
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