Monday, August 29, 2011

Birds and Airplanes

The birds are calling from my backyard this morning to their neighbors across the street. The crickets and bullfrogs create a constant chirping hum in the background. I am accustomed to electric and mechanical noises, to computer fans running and cars driving by.

But today, the sound of nature outpaces the sound of humanity.

There is this complex relationship between the sounds of humanity and the sounds of nature. Both noises (at least in the places I have inhabited) coexist at all times, and it is up to our brains to distinguish between the two and choose which one will hold our attention.

This morning I am blessed by the near and urgent calling of the birds. Its volume, cadence, and conversational tone have caught my attention and the opened up my senses to hear the rest of the natural world around me.

But if I allow my ears to lose this focus, I can hear the hum of the cooling units from the bank a half a block away and an airplane overhead.

In the real world, these sounds all coexist and blend together to make up the background noises to our reality. While I'll give no argument against the idea that we have probably far too often paved paradise and put up a parking lot, at the root their is a harmony to these background sounds of the world and no need for us to create a false dichotomy.

The same is true for the human and divine.

Perhaps it is too much drinking from the moonshine of the mystics, but if the incarnation holds meaning, it must show us that God intends no false dichotomies between the human and divine. Those previous boundaries are swallowed up in the person of Christ, the One in Whom Everything Belongs.

In Christ (both in his earthly life and now through His spirit) there is a beautiful harmony present in the world, being sung by the Creator over the creation, with parts written widely for creation to join in.

But so long as we are concerned with whether or not others are singing the right parts, we will miss the primary Voice that holds all things together, creating harmony where there should be cacophany and peace where there should be tension.

For my part, I hope that my ears will be tuned to hear that Voice, whether it be faint or loud, so taht I can join in the song. I think we all have this longing to be a part of something greater than ourselves.

In each moment, I am presented with that opportunity.

Thanks be to God.

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