More about Awe and Joy… April 2, 2008
Posted by Anya in : I won't keep things purposely vague , trackback“What! You, too? … You know that? The pain of beauty?” [Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy]
StrongJoy reminded me of Rich Mullins’ song Sometimes By Step:Â Sometimes the night was beautiful/sometimes the sky was so far away/sometimes it seemed to steep so close/you could touch it but your heart would break…
To my shame, I had forgotten about that song. But the first time I heard those words, it was incredible, because they perfectly described what I had felt not that long before. That I could touch the sky, but it would break something inside of me. It’s belonging and not belonging, at the same time. Lewis: “You don’t have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
I think that night, when I had felt that I could touch the sky, may have been the same night when I realized what Samwise Gamgee meant… Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. Beauty does smite. It tells us that we do not belong here.Â
In A Severe Mercy, Lewis wrote to Van, “You say the materialistic universe is ‘ugly’. I wonder how you discovered that! If you are really the product of a materialistic universe, how is it you don’t feel at home there?… Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. (’How times flies! Fancy John being grown-up & married! I can hardly believe it!’) In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us that is not temporal.”Â
But on the other hand, try thinking about eternity. Ouch.  Â
Yet it still calls forth a response…
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! [Romans 11:33]
And He came to earth, (the Word — logos — all the high Platonic things — became flesh — sarx — everything dirty and polluted) and died for us.
Things into which angels long to look…
Have been given to us…
Don’t forget. It is a truth which we often overlook, often allowing the logos to become concealed beneath the sarx, forgetting to behold His glory.
But it is there, nonetheless.
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!Â
2Â Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3Â Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4Â Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5Â Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6Â Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Comments»
Wow, yet another great post. You have motived me to continue reading that book.
It’s late, so that’s all I will say for now.
You took the words right out of my mouth, Anya. Again.
Minus the quotes, I was thinking much the same thing. When you see something, feel something, or experience something that is so beautiful you wish you could keep the feeling forever, and yet and the same time it feels as if your heart would break from the beauty of it - that is when you are reminded of a higher world beyond this one. This feeling that we experience is only a brief glimpse of the kind of feeling we will have in heaven, standing in the presence of our Savior. Once we experience that feeling of overwhelming heart-breaking beauty we can understand why angels simply cannot help themselves from falling down before the Lord and praising Him.
I’ve been reading Paradise Lost for the past couple weeks, and there are a couple passages in there where Milton communicates much the same thing. The powerful, wonderful, overwhelming, heartbreaking beauty of something we see here in this world is only the smallest part of the whole picture. If the creation can instill in us something so awe inspiring, how much more does the Creator?
It amazes me how writers are able to communicate that feeling of heart-breaking beauty. My favorite examples are from Tolkien and Lewis, of course.
But that’s why I like those books so much - they can create that feeling in you, make you think. Make you write blog entries about it, haha.
Anyway, just some random ramblings. I don’t know if any of it actually made sense, but basically, I’m just agreeing with you. I can’t wait for that overwhelming feeling to hit me when I get to heaven, and see the most beautiful thing I will ever see. Thinking of heaven is what truly makes me feel that if I could touch it my heart would break. Or something like that. *shrugs* ^_^
Another great post…
I think Rich Mullins is really good at capturing the Heartbreaking Beauty\Awe and the Joy - whatever you want to call it- in his music. There are so many good lines is his songs…
By the way, this week my Mom was at a book-store and saw A Severe Mercy and bought it for me. I haven’t got around to reading it yet, but I will. I promise. I also bought a Starfield CD in order to hear “My Generation” (and because I wanted to have the CD
). It’s a very nice song - and a nice band, too. More mature, say, than Relient K 
? (And no, I’m not against Relient K, but they haven’t grown up yet, I guess. I do like “Forgiven,” which I just heard yesterday for the first time. It was very convicting and a good reminder.) Anyway, that said, I guess maybe you could read “The Ballad Of The White Horse” for me, now that I’m taking all of your advice and reading the books you recommend….:) Just kidding - but actually I would say that is another of the beautiful works in which the author has effectively expressed the Awe and the Joy. My sister and I read it again together yesterday, at the computer, because our copy is packed with all the other books. We were reading it quietly to ourselves and all at once we would both break out shouting one of the very good lines and finishing it with, “Oh, that is soooo good.” Then we would laugh at ourselves - but we were the only ones in the house, so it was OK.
Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy