Lift Up Your Eyes

Here are a few paragraphs from the short story, “Father Hughes and the Golden Door,” out of Taylor Caldwell’s Grandmother and the Priests (Doubleday 1963).

Sir Joshua is speaking: “Do we not accept this mysterious and beautiful world, the air we breathe, the glories of the sky, the shine of water? These are all mysteries. We accept the sun and the moon and the stars as commonplaces—these majestic and miraculous things from the Hand of God. We are blind men, and deaf. The smallest field flower is a marvel; a bird is a revelation; a wind is tremendous beyond words. But, we accept them, casually and unthinkingly.”

Benedict contemplates. “He had been a dutiful and hard-working and devoted priest, moving always among misery and trying to bring light into darkness. He had been obedient; he had prayed with all his heart, and had known peace. . . . There was work to be done. He, Benedict Hughes, had been a male Martha, concerned with busy matters. He had worked so hard that he had not looked at the stars for years, and had never thought of them. He labored in God’s vineyard, but he never caught the fragrance of the grapes. . . .

“Yet Christ had paused to admire the lily of the field. He had gone to the Lake of Galilee, so beautiful, so calm, so holy and moving, to deliver the Sermon on the Mount. He had loved the sweet faces of children. He had spoken of the cheeping swallow. He had loved, beyond all imagined love, the charming garden which was the world, the lovely garden He had made. On the night before He had offered up His life for men He had prayed in Gethsemane, the place of olives and cypresses and flowers. His words had been filled with beauty and poetry, for He was Beauty, itself. . . .

“And I have dared to be embarrassed by my father’s poetry! thought Benedict. I, who have no poetry at all. He had prided himself on his realism—and realism had closed his eyes with mud.”

"Closed with mud" alludes to the miracle of Jesus giving sight to the blind man (John 9).

God says about the starry creation, Lift up your eyes and see.

Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)

How long since you have looked at the stars? Stand outside in the quiet darkness. Look up. Wait. What touches your spirit?

After you do this, please leave a comment on this blog. I’d love to know what you experience.