“A Divine Seed” by Robert Haddad

Last autumn, I was standing outside a local restaurant admiring its exterior design. Next to the restaurant, in a neat row, were several other visually striking facades. Admiring the man-made aesthetics, I realized that the appeal and beauty of this shopping center was surrounded by, in stark contrast, a dark and dreary autumn tree line. What man had made, I thought, was far more attractive than nature. Then, almost as fast as I had that thought, another took over.

The forest’s cold and motionless trees drew me in … a silent calm. Car noises, people, even the glimmering lights faded for a moment. It was as if the forest was communicating with me. I began to sense a knowing, a confident, immovable peace. Beneath the seemingly lifeless surface the forest was alive.

I realized that the real beauty of this forest was not found in what could be seen or touched but rather in its invisible nature. In a few short months, each lifeless tree would blossom. In a couple more months, vibrant greens would turn to endless shades of orange and gold. The profound and powerful beauty that lies within this forest is in its nature, that is, in its inate ability to transform itself. Soon the lifeless little forest would surpass the beauty of the shopping center.

Trees, during winter months, don’t become anxious or depressed over their apparent state of decay but confidently rest in the laws at work within–laws once released from a tiny little seed that gave them life.

In the same way that a tree, or even an entire forest, is given life and sustained by laws imbedded in a seed, God has given us His life within a Seed.

We have been born again, not of perishable seed,

but of imperishable, 

by the Word of God,

which lives and abides forever.

~ I Peter 1:23

Know that there is a Divine Seed within you already programed, like all seeds, to reproduce itself and multiply. The next season of growth in your life is inevitable: ONLY BELIEVE!

Robbert Haddad

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Link to Andy Goldsworthy “Time & Tide” Montage

There are no words to express how beautiful I think this is:

Time & Tide Montage

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“Journey of the Magi” by T.S. Eliot

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

T.S. Eliot
“Ariel Poems,” Collected Poems: 1909-1962

Commentary: On T.S. Eliot’s Conversion and “Journey of the Magi” and Thoughts on the Ariel Poems

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Christian Poets of the Twentieth Century

Christian Poets of the Twentieth Century

Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry

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