Canvas of Heaven by Barry Hughes

This particular morning brought a spectacular sky and unusually wispy clouds to welcome me on my walk. It seemed as if the heavens were a giant canvas upon which a master artist was a in the midst of a lovely watercolor painting. As the Psalmist wrote, “The heavens are telling the glory of God.” What a wonderful way to start the day!

One of the songs that I learned as a child has stayed with me across the decades of my life and has come to be the statement of my theology and my faith. I remember my mother singing this with me as a small boy as I stood beside her old “upright grand” piano. One stanza of the poem set to music reads:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry,

Not could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.”

I believe that even when it doesn’t look like it, this is the truth. I believe that even when it doesn’t feel like it, this is the truth. Even when we humans are at our worst in our attitudes and actions toward one another, I believe this is the truth. Even when those who claim to know this God of love are at their worst, I believe this is the truth. Just because we can’t get life right doesn’t change the great good news that this is the truth about God: God is love.

All the more reason to commit anew each day to living a life that reflects, rather than diminishes, the love that surrounds us all. All the more reason to be kind and compassionate and gentle in a world that can be all too mean and uncaring and violent. All the more reason to strive be a person who leads others to see the sky and the clouds and the love written across the heavens.

Peace.