The Appearance of Reality

Between the idea and reality
Between the motion and the act
Falls the shadow
TS Elliot

Virginia Stem Owens* in her book, And the Trees Clap their Hands, says,
“The newborn is a natural spy. Only his inherent limitations impede him from consuming all the clues of the universe. Sent here with the mission of finding the meaning buried in matter, he goes about his business briskly. He is devoted to discovery. He has to learn the world from scratch, but the task seems nothing but a joy. Yet gradually, over time, something goes wrong.

The spy slowly begins to forget his mission. He spends so much time and effort learning the language, adopting the habits and customs, internalizing the thought patterns flawlessly, that somehow he becomes his cover. He forgets what he’s about. He goes to school, grows up. He gets his job, collects his pay, buys a house, and waters the lawn. He wakes up each morning with the shape of his mission, what brought him here in the first place, grown hazier. Then one morning he wakes up and only yawns. It must be there somewhere, buried in the brain cells, but at least superficially the memory is erased. The spy goes native.”

Colossians 2:17 - These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

*To learn more about Virginia Stem Owens check out imagejournal.org