Look beneath
By Steven Polley
Director, Office of Youth Ministry and Adult Education
Many times in writing these columns, I have
shared things about growing up on the farm in
Over the past several weeks, I have been
working on the annual adult retreat that I do each year at the
One of the additional reflection sources I
am using is a book written by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr, “The Circle Of
Life”. In the book, I came across a
poem written by Joyce Rupp, entitled “A Closer Look at Thanksgiving”. The first sentence of the poem is: “If you
look at a sunset, you might see only the disappearance of daylight.”
As I reflected more deeply on this
statement and the entire poem I was again drawn to memories of my
grandfather. Grandpa seemed to have a
gift of knowing so much about a simple sunset.
During what could be harsh winters in Kit
Carson, the cattle were always in the pasture closest to the house. If a blizzard was forecast, the cattle came
into the big corral by the house so that we could get feed to them. Still hanging in our utility room is
grandpa’s barometer. In the lower left
hand corner is the indentation left there from year’s
of tapping it. If Grandpa tapped it and
it dropped, he was pretty certain that the weather was going to change, the wind was going to blow, etc.
But along with the barometer, grandpa was
able to read so much from a sunset. Many
times I would hear him say that when the sun set clear and he could see it set,
the bad weather was over. But if it did
not set clearly, we had a pretty good idea that we could be in for more snow
and wind. And most of the time grandpa
was not too far off. Grandpa was able to
look at a sunset and see much more than the disappearance of daylight.
Joyce Rupp continues her poem by following
up with this statement: “If you look
beneath, you may see darkness opening the splendor of stars.” Grandpa had the gift of being able to look
beneath. Not only in a
sunset, but many other things as well.
He could find goodness and something positive in almost everything.
Thus, I was drawn to several other parts of
Joyce’s poem:
“If you look at lost dreams, you might see
only disappointment and doubt. If you
look beneath, you may see the stuff that new dreams contain.
“If you look at the death of a loved one,
you might see only pervasive sorrow. If
you look beneath, you may see that love lives on forever in the heart.
“If you look at yourself, you might see
only tarnished unfinishedness. If you look beneath, you may see your basic
goodness shining there.
“If you look for the divine being, you
might see mostly unresolved questions.
If you look beneath, you may be astounded at the availability of divine
love.”
As we celebrate this New Year, and prepare
to enter more fully into our journey of faith during the upcoming Lenten
season, may we learn to look beneath in all we do. Can we find ourselves more fully engulfed in
God’s grace and love as we move to unknowable depths within our souls?
I too continue my invitation for you to
walk with each of our young people on their journey of faith. How can we help them look beneath?
May God continue to guide and bless you in
all you do.