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Last night after Bible study at Zion, Jason and I had one of those long, meandering, wondering, musing conversations...you know, the kind that makes you want to stay up all night and just. keep. talking. It started in Romans 5 (verse 12, specifically) with some really good questions about sin and creation and wandered through eternity and cultural sin and corporate identity and the Kabbalah. And of course there were a few explorations into human limits and art and the color blue (obviously).
Somewhere in the middle we happened upon this quote from G. K. Chesterton (well, that is, Jason brought it up--he was reading it the other night):
[God] is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
I find this possibility--quite the opposite of the Watchmaker who has set the world in motion and gone away--absolutely delightful.
Of course, it doesn't explain where evil came from when there was only God to begin with or how it is that "because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17). I defer to one of my favorite thoughts from The Brothers K: "Prayer is mysterious. God is even worse. I don't have it all figured out yet."
Great Brothers K quote. (I've been meaning to actually read the whole thing, but I keep telling myself I'll read it as soon as I learn Russian.)
Daisies. And beetles. Why the zillion varieties of beetles. "Make another beetle, only this time ..." Like a composer who can't finish his symphony because he keeps getting one more idea on a way to play with that theme.
As much as I'd love to let blogland go on thinking I've read The Brothers Karamozov, I should point out that the quote is actually from David James Duncan's 1992 novel about baseball and a Seventh-Day Adventist family. It's my fave.
I, too, have been meaning to read all of The Brothers Karamozov. I don't know what it is about that book--I read, I like, I put down after 1/3.
would someone explain to me what "the grand" is?
that's not me...just to clarify.
nope...just another pca chic floating out in cyberspace.
Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the blog. I've been meaning to answer your question, and I thought I'd give it its own entry, but this'll have to do. The short version is that the Grand is simply what what we call our house (our address is 1000, hence the name).
The long version is harder these days. We're still figuring it out. If you're interested in some history, the archives, especially the categories "Grand Reflections" and "Life @ the Grand," is a good place to start. If you're interested in the ongoing story, stay tuned. :)
the infamous renae from 'the house'..so excited to 'meet' you. i have heard many wonderful stories about you -actually about several of the beautiful women from 'the grand'- from a mutual friend who, for the time being, shall remain nameless. thank you for responding. i have already been encouraged and strengthened, just by browsing. ptl!!
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