The precious gift

Because man was made in the very image of God, he argued, man is not ultimately a liar. He may pervert the things of God for his own ends, but he can never fully efface the image of God in him. He can never really be satisfied with lies. He can never escape who he really is. And for this reason, even the pagan myths retain a semblance of eternal truth, however corrupted. Ultimately, even in his imaginative creations, man is pulled back to the truths that answer to the call of his own true nature.

Martin Cothran -  Tolkien, Lewis & Christian Mythology.

It's proved to be a busy - in some respects turbulent - start to another year. Whilst this has meant very little time behind the camera (I have managed to get a little landscape imagery done), it has been a period when, once again, I've been reminded in my studies and my daily life that there is a God who, thankfully, is very much involved and engaged with us in the mundane.
Studying afresh through the Old Testament, I was reminded last month of the story of Ruth - a woman who could so easily have been alienated from 'the righteous' because of her background, but who, through simple, straightforward even routine behavior (caring for the daily needs of another) became favored by someone who would come to marry her. It's a very simple story, especially when you look at it in the context of all the bluster and fury of what was going on in that part of the world at the time (take a read through the book of Judges), and yet, it was in this very normal backwater tale that something momentous was beginning. Ruth's children would be the family from which David, Israel's great King, would come - the 'quiet' story is the opening of the stuff of legends.

The Gospels, noted C S Lewis, contain many elements of those stories which, rising from amidst the mundane, touch us at our very core. We taste the deepest art, drama, beauty and meaning in spite of our corruption, as it allows us to peak for a moment at what we truly desire - the fragrance and embrace of what was lost - but the truth unwrapped here is that the story - our story - begins and ends in joy, because another sees us and restores what was lost.

Our engagement with life - be it with myth, or art, or the mundane, can be meaningful, if we can catch this glimpse, and allow the beauty of what is truly there to nest within our hunger for the one who "makes all things beautiful in their time, and places eternity in our hearts". We can never find a sufficient source for joy or rest if we fail to see it there, but if we do, then all the radiance of the goodness of the Father, through the Son, will rise in true health and righteousness, ripening amidst the most common things of life, and our pleasure in the finding and sharing of such truth.

Amidst the daily things - work and play, creativity and reflection - I hope that some small part of what I do will at least point to such riches.

Images: Skyclimb. Model: Magenta. Evergreen. Model: Erin. The Reveling. Model: Magenta