I am reading about snow in the book "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" and from the few short experiences I do have of "going to the snow" (that's what we do in California) I can relate to what the author is saying about the experience of being in the snow, feet sinking into the white billows, sorrounded and nearly blinded by the sheer shimmering explosion of light coming from it and the seemingly less bright, blustering sky above. I paraphrase of the concept she presents:
Snow is bright.
But the sky is brighter.
Really? That's can't be.
The snow before me looks so bright!
It is blinding it is so bright!
In comparison, the sky seems darker, grayer, dimmer, bleaker.
Not true. Not possible.
Why?
The object reflecting the light cannot be brighter than the light.
Place a mirror in the snow and you will see for yourself how bright the sky is. How much brighter the sky actually is than the snow.
Oh. You're right.
Then why does the snow LOOK so much brighter than the sky without the mirror to reflect the truth?
Because the snow is closer.
The snow is here.
Underfoot.
The snow is right in front of me, all around me.
Not like the sky.The sky is far.
The sky is there.
Over head.
It is above me.
I must lift my eyes to look. It is so far away.
In thinking about this, I realize how this is a metaphor for my life, for my relationship with God.
God, why does this world, my way of doing things seem so right? Why does everything here capture my eyes and blight my heart with its shimmering allure? And yet your way, seems darker, more obscure, hard to see, unless I lift my eyes?
Because what I know is here.
I am comfortable with what is underfoot.
I can feel it underfoot, see it, touch it, even taste it.
You are there. You are far.
Over head. So far above me.
I must lift my eyes to look.
Sometimes, you feel so far away.
You are brighter. Lighter! You are THE light!
But you don't seem that way to my eyes - my eyes that like a baby's go to what is shiny, what is dangled right in front of me. I am captivated by the flash, the flame, the flicker, of all that it here on earth that appears to bright, but is really just a reflection of a greater light. And if I put the mirror out, I will see the greatest reflection of all - YOU, Great Light, reflecting from me.
Yet, so often, I keep my eyes fixed on the light that is here, as though it were the brightest.
Pull my eyes away to the Brighter Light of your Love.
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