Flecks of Paradise 5-28-10

Deep Gap, North Carolina

There are rare events in life many of us will never experience. One of those just came my way. I’m reminded once again of the grand imagery of GK Chesterton, who remarked in wonderment about flecks of Paradise washing up on the shores of his life. When I first read his observations about the possibility of heavenly specks of creation washing up on the sands of life, I was on pilgrimage in Europe, wandering during Holy Week and beyond to the grand cathedrals that add such inspiring texture to the land. Perhaps one of those flecks for me would be a numinous experience in any of dozens of towering cathedrals. Seeing tendrils of smoke going up into the dark vaults of Saint Catherine’s Cathedral in Eindhoven on Good Friday during an expansive performance of the St. John’s Passion at sunset must have been close to what Chesterton had in mind.

Perhaps What I just saw was what God had in mind. I was about the mundane matters of packing up my cameras, clothing, and other necessary rudiments for my journey down the mountain. Across the valley, above ten thousand Christmas trees, I saw a nascent rainbow in the late afternoon sky. Could this possibly become a real one I might even get a picture of? So often I see rainbows as a distant event and rarely do I have cameras with me when I need them. The last time I saw one I could barely make it out because of distance and disruptions by utility poles and billboards. This time with three cameras and a tripod nearby I was ready for what might come to pass. I could only pray it would.

During the next six minutes I experienced the formation of two brilliant rainbows, moving towards me, across the grandest possible backdrop in the world, a valley full of those Christmas trees, as an event horizon. Half way through this stupendous event horizon, I thought of Chesterton’s great astonishment at those wondrous times when he was actually granted two flecks from paradise. Two intense rainbows formed fully, with clear unobstructed view of both ends. I could only wish I had a fish-eye lens to capture all of it at the same time.

The orientation of the sun, the position of an advancing rain squall across the valley, the array of trees, the foreground position of a Celtic cross created a ‘perfect storm’ of beauty. It would not have been possible to orchestrate a better scenario to experience intense beauty as an event horizon, to have this glorious wonder simply wash over me. I’m reminded of the sound byte in recovery, “We get God’s best when we let Him do the choosing. As I prepare to leave the mountain and return to my normal life in the morning, at 6:45 PM this indelible image was printed into my experience of Paradise. Perhaps I really am in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

Rainbows have long been metaphors of abundant life, wealth, renewal, new beginnings. Many established spiritual retreats make abundant use of rainbows and all the colors within to create imagery of the abundant life that comes from spiritual renewal. Certainly, I have had my own share of such retreat experiences, enjoying the amazing colors that come about when white light is broken open by crystal prisms or raindrops.

It is when we allow our lives to be broken open that we become fertile ground for God’s renewing spirit to grow up colorful new things in us. Even when we are on rocky shores and in the deep pain of unemployment, addiction, divorce, aging, illness, or confinement, rather than basking in the joy of youthful life on white powder sand beaches, we can trust that all will be well in the end. We learn acceptance of all things in life, good and bad, is the key to happy joyous living.

The grandest promise for the many millions in recovery comes from a story written seventy-five years ago by a physician, tortured by alcoholism, drug addiction, and their attendant torments of mind and soul, a man who learned the liberation of accepting brokenness as the key to experiencing golden possibilities in life.

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed it is because I find some person, place, or thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, or thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake … unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

Today rainbows reached all the way down in the valley before me. I’m reminded even in the darkness that often comes with life, possibilities for a miracle are always before us. For those sharing the dense pain of early recovery, the most challenging and energizing words often are, “Don’t give up a day before your miracle.” In these days of unrelenting unemployment, renewed financial uncertainties across the world, failed relationships, medical calamity, we can find refuge in an even greater promise written down before the foundations of time.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me besides the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.