What is your life?
by chuckofish
David Zahl used this Norman Rockwell painting “Lift Up Thine Eyes” (1957) as a sermon illustration this week and I thought I’d share it too. Rockwell depicts New Yorkers with hunched shoulders and downcast eyes passing St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street. They are not looking up at the beauty around them or at the message on the church sign or at their fellow man. Nowadays he would no doubt illustrate people with eyes locked on their cell phones, oblivious to their surroundings and their fellow man. But the sign on the Episcopal Church wouldn’t quote scripture–it would probably say, “All are welcome here” and fly a rainbow flag. And the church would still be empty.
We didn’t get much snow, but the temperature plunged. It was 7 degrees when I checked on Sunday morning.
It was the kind of weekend where you were content to sit by the fire…
and/or cuddle under a blanket.
On Saturday I did venture out to an estate sale at a very modest house in my flyover town, a house which I would normally skip. However, the pictures online of the interior of the house revealed a lot of nice things, including a mysterious array of early 1960s high-end children’s clothing. There were Steiff animals, needlepoint canvases, worked and unworked, and other signs of cultural familiarity.
When I got there my interest was piqued…
and when I found these M.I. blazers, I knew the house had belonged to someone I knew long ago.
Indeed, it all came together and I remembered reading that this woman, who was in the class below me all during my growing up years at school, had died a month or so ago. Well, estate sales can become very creepy when you realize you knew the person(s) who lived there. This happens more than you might think, mostly because I know a lot of older people because of my work. However, a surprising number of my contemporaries have departed this mortal coil, and that does start one thinking.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14)
Well, I bought a book–I already have a copy, but I always pick up out-of-print treasures like this when I get the chance.
Sigh. All this has caused me to feel a certain nostalgia for the wretched 1970s!
In that spirit, I give you the Grateful Dead:
P.S. While looking on Youtube for the GD version of this song, I found this cover by some talented youngsters–I love these guys! Jack-A-Roe (or Jack Monroe) is a traditional English folksong which has been recorded by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, among others. Time goes by, but things stay the same, right?
Have a great week, starting with today–Monday! Look up! Pray for the day ahead. Pray that you might bring glory to God, in thought, word and deed. Thank God that his mercies are new every morning. Thank God that his grace is sufficient for all situations that you may encounter.
dual personalities 