God's Sculpture Garden

I went for a lunchtime walk through a museum sculpture garden last week. It was a gorgeous day. 

(Aren’t all days gorgeous? I used to not be fond of rainy days and hot days. When I moved to Portland, Oregon, awhile back, I decided that I needed to fall in love with all weather. 

A reader of mine said to me a couple years back: “Mick, I really like your emails. A lot of it goes over my head, but I think I get the main point: be kind and compassionate to others and yourself.” I love that description. 

Shall we include all weather in our endeavor to be kind and compassionate? Yes.)

Back to the sculpture garden:

I looked at the first sculpture for a moment, then I turned my gaze to continue moving. I noticed leaf-shaped shadows on the stone path. I looked up and observed the large tree casting those shadows. I saw and heard kids talking during lunch a few steps up.

In literally every direction I looked and listened, I witnessed the beauty of the universe.

In every leaf. In every shadow. In every plant. In every sound. In the dust motes illuminated by the sun. In the sun’s light itself.

And the thought came to me, that while I walked that moment in the garden of sculptures made by humans, each moment of my life I’ve walked in God’s sculpture garden - the universe itself.

The deep beauty of humanity: our inner cares, our natural innocence, and the mean and cruel things we do to ourselves and others. Hunger for power, control, security, admiration, and wealth? They’re not only for the bad guys in stories. We each harbor them within our own hearts and actions.

Integrity, beauty, goodness, and holiness is the path of kindness, of compassion, of simplicity, of honesty, of gratitude. 

How am I cultivating kindness and compassion in my own life right now (outwardly and inwardly)? Perhaps there’s no other question I need ask, no other task as important.

Aren't children so quick to learn this lesson when we teach it to them? (“Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus in Matthew 18:3)

We walk, you and I, each moment of our lives through God’s sculpture garden. The spiritual life, as far as I've been able to discern so far, is the practice of being present to this truth.

The trees, birds, squirrels, grass, and clouds. The adults, children, strangers, friends, and family. No one is worthy of our judgment, resentment, and contempt, and everyone is worthy of our respect, compassion, and understanding. 

“Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” (Jesus in Mark 8:18.)

Much Love. ❤️