by Nancy Shuman
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| Photo by Greg Smith, Wikimedia Creative Commons. |
I fell in love with the sea when I was
seventeen. Never mind that I'd never laid eyes on it. Never mind that I
was growing up in a landlocked American state, far from salty breezes.
I imagined crashing waves and windswept dunes and oh, such a wonderful
smell!
The first time I saw the ocean, that day
when I was hit with the full impact of sounds and scents and gusts of
wind for which I had only been partially prepared, I knew I'd had no way
beforehand of picturing the scene spread out in three dimensions before
me. The constant roll of waves, that overpowering ROAR, the feel of
feet being sucked down into wet sand. Even though I'd dreamed of it and
actually in some way loved it, there was no way I could have envisioned
the totality
of it all.
Everything I'd imagined about the sea
was true. The only shock was in discovering how much MORE there was to
it. The three-dimensionality of it. The engagement of senses I'd never
thought would be called into service.
Sometimes I compare my love of the sea
to love of God. Never having seen Him, I love Him. I have true ideas
of Him, and through His grace I can actually know Him. Yet there is no
way I can know Him in His
fullness
until I see Him face to
face. I cannot even envision such Totality, and I suspect such vision
would overwhelm a human still in the flesh.
Will there be, in eternity, sounds
beyond anything we've ever heard here? Colors not detectable to eyes of
flesh? A thousand dimensions spread before us, in every taste and
shade, in every tone and depth, in every texture of Love.... ?
"Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,
nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who
love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)
This was originally posted at The Breadbox Letters.
Nancy Shuman also blogs at The Cloistered Heart.
