Within a few feet of each other we have a nest of baby cardinals, a nest of baby robins and a nest full of phoebes. It is a wonderful time. The goldfinches are wearing their summer plumage and showing off to our yard wren, catbird and hummingbirds. Teeming is a word that comes to the front of my mind. Our yard is teeming. Just a few weeks ago there was thirty inches of snow where there are now eight inch high hostas. People-high azaleas and forsythia overwhelm with their presence.
I am so thankful to be able to see. I have two friends who cannot and I cannot find words to describe my sorrow that they cannot revel with me. I want to tell them the cardinals are red, but if one has never seen red how can it be described? So foolishly many years ago I tried to describe heaven in the midst of a sermon. It was a miserable failure because I was trying to tell about something I myself had never seen. Someday I should get smart.
It is that way with so much. One cannot truly speak of love until one has deeply loved. One cannot describe evil until one has witnessed a holocaust or a genocide or the cross of Calvary. Or in some cases the opposite is true. Emily Dickinson wrote, “Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need.” Jesus understood. In the Sermon on the Mount He said, “Blessed are those who are hungry for righteousness. They shall be filled.” In the midst of teeming there is yet so much more to be tasted, by me and my unsighted friends.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 3, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org