Edges

I once took a painting course and early in the series we spent a whole week on strictly edges. The transition of one place to another. There are hard, soft, narrow, wide, lost, long gradated, short gradated edges to name a few – who knew there were so much to it or how important they are. Think of a lawn chair in the brilliant sunshine. Now what about that same chair on a cloudy day? On a more overcast day? To paint a decent representation you need all the edges working together. There are no right or wrong, no better-than or worse-than edges, just a need and a place for all of them. 

Which reminds me of God’s Kingdom. Nothing is wasted. How soon would we be bored with only one or two edges in the world? 

Recently there was this giant outdoor David Foster benefit concert here in Victoria that drew some 50+ thousand to the inner harbour. Not being able to attend such events myself (much too busy and congested for the likes of me), but I am so fortunate to have a friend who gave me a beautiful afternoon recap of the star-studded show. Her recap made it feel like I was there myself. She went on to mention an auction held the day before with the likes of Bill Gates and other renowned corporate giants who raised some $14 million for charity causes. Being a person with disabilities, its easy to feel totally insignificant and a nobody living on the same earth as them. 

But as in drawing – its very different to draw what we see rather what we think should be there. (The difference between God’s perspective and mine). So when I put seeing what is actually there together with a billion different kinds of edges, it demonstrates just how much we need it all, that we all have an important place in the world. 

I read in a meditation book, ‘God is too big to be confined to a single metaphor. If we said ‘God is like a rock and nothing else, we would put limits on Him to that rock quality only – solidness, permanence, hard, etc. But God is so much more. He nourishes us like food, gives us life like water, sheds light into our lives like the sun, understands like a friend, adores like a faithful husband, protects like a fortress, cares for us like a mother, spreads out through reality like a tree and unifies us the way a vine connects its branches.’

God comes to us as things as ordinary as the wind, birds, bread and beasts. If we have the eyes to see and ears to hear, he is everywhere. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had it right when she penned “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes.”

It took a several go’s and my first attempts at edges were pretty clumsy but they did get better and taught me a much more valuable lesson.

We all count and have a place.