Jesus Presence of Jesus and God in Poem by Merton Lee When Pebbles Share The Mystery

 

When Pebbles Share The Mystery  by  Merton Lee

(On reading the poem “Dover Beach”)

 

 

Those pebbles in morning light,

they prefer living in that kind of spring

less touched by time.

Perhaps they share the Mystery

or can share their mystery with us.

Are they timeless siblings?

Are they another kind of holograms

containing a piece, a glimpse of our Creator?

Are they crystallized droplets of God’s tears –

tears of hope, resolve, healing, renewal?

Or they half-speak, half-disclose to us

only because they have been baptized

by the ancient waves,

by the raw visible world,

by His voice from the sea.

Or together with the waves

they resonate those birth pangs,

growth, waning, and revival of human faith,

those epoch-making conflicts, awesome sacrifices

at the world’s naked shingles and hallowed grounds.

Or the immemorial waves

have dissolved blood, toil, tears, and sweat --

the pebbles sanctified further

into light-reflecting prisms:

glimpses of His greater vision.

Or pebbles all along are part of the Mystery,

beckoning at the meek, 

for in tempering human wills,

inner kingdoms are tamed,

bearing fruits nurtured by the Spirit,

some with the scent of hidden seaside laurels ...

Those pebbles in evening light,

the earthly self has since been emptied,

to be filled with their blessing,

a kind of special blessing

coming from these offspring of mythical stones,

so at home with the nuances of sunrays

while distilling secrets of the Deep …

Is the immense blueness before us,

an aimless Experiment

or out-of-proportioned Accident?

Are those seagulls, pelicans, and sparrows,

ventures of an impersonal Chaos

or an untrammelled Free Will?

Beyond the veil of Chaos,

beyond red claws and battle cries,

do we sense something which Death’s scythe

cannot smell, taste or touch?

Is that something providing

life to our bodies and souls?

Are our bodies and souls,

revived by wise breezes,

nudged to converse with the One?

Did God resolve to create

a stringent Self-challenge,

akin to biting the bullet,

giving us free will

to the extent that we can reject Him,

to such depth that we can denounce Him …

so that when whispers of the Mystery reach us,

we awaken to greater depths,

where His love flows

beyond those special spring mornings,

beyond those rivers of time,

beyond our surprises of being born?

Can we stand on tiptoes on the golden sand;

can we climb a tree, a hill, a vantage point,

to reach that warm sunlit height

of our feelings, sensing, awareness,

trying to look over the rim of the sea,

hoping to catch that gleam from the Source …

or simply contented to be surprised

by the unique life

already glowing, breathing, blinking

on our suntanned faces?

Perhaps inside,

somewhere somehow we know

those glowing, breathing, blinking

are already coming

from beyond the rim of the sea.

Or can we enter the thin places between heartbeats,

glimpsing the inner kingdom of Saint Francis,

before disappearing …

becoming Life’s children once again,

as precious as the eyes of that evening light,

finding new, old and long-lost friends,

memories, dreams, and joy

among the waters, waves, pebbles, and seashells …

until beyond our wishes for something more,

beyond poem-writing and reverie,

we finally sense their mystery,

eager to tell us

how to discover,

how to be amazed

by the many-splendored thing,

a blue sea with sunlight sparkling on it,

because within it,

when we are allowed a glimpse,

is the life-giving Presence.

                                           Merton Lee