Twilight's Pearl

On the dusky evenings I walk along the dirt path to my chicken yard, I feel the uneven dirt beneath my flip-flops.  As I walk along the pitted and clodded path, I look at the deep, uneven footprints made by my rubber boots the last time it rained and I had to walk out there in the ankle-deep mud.  When it's wet, the thick mud pulls against my boot with each step, as if pleading with me not to take another step forward.  But most nights, the mud has quieted down into dry, uneven terrain that leads to my chicken yard.

As I walk, I look down at the uneven dirt

As I walk, I look up at the twilight sky

Not quite day, not quite night

In this twilight limbo, time seems to stand still

In this twilight limbo, everything is in-between

In-between light and dark

In-between seen and unseen

In-between wake and sleep

In-between the uneven dirt and the twilight sky

In this twilight limbo, I look down and think about the coarse, earthen dirt God used to make us

In this twilight limbo, I look up and think about His heavenly abode, way up high beyond the stars

The first stars of the night are usually out and they twinkle from where God has them positioned, unfathomable light years away.  So far away, that they cannot be touched, or experienced, or felt, other than their twinkling.  I think to myself, "Sometimes God feels like that."  The stars are so far away, but here on earth, in my chicken yard, I am so very close to the smell of grass and chickens and approaching night.  Here on earth, in my chicken yard, I am so very close to the cool, evening breeze that tousles my hair.  God, stars, earth.  All are equally real, but so differently experienced.

I breathe in deeply.  I cannot breathe-in the stars, but I can breathe-in the earth.  So I breathe in deeply and think about God breathing deeply into the earthen dirt He used to make us, like the uneven dirt beneath my flip-flops, breathing His Spirit into the dirt to give it life and consciousness. 

I look down at the dirt.

I look up at the sky.

And I breathe in deeply as I walk to my chicken yard.

I stand at the rusty, crooked gate, and I look around at this little spot tucked away like a shiny pearl in a pocket of God's robe.  The long, flowy robe of an unending universe.  Galaxies made out of heavenly buttons and solar systems made out of divine thread.  The flowy robe of a Master Tailor, spinning and sewing a magnificent wardrobe of exquisite creations.  A divine, unsearchable robe, with all sorts of pockets full of secret, simple treasures.  My chicken yard is one of those treasures.  It is a treasure of simplicity and complexity, of mundane and wonder.  Inert dirt and old wood and scattered rocks mixed with grass and chickens and trees, making a concoction full of life and potential and creation.  It is a place I treasure because it is a place where my life stands still, away from the electric, away from the frantic, away from the overwhelming pace of modern-day life.  A place where pause, ponder, marvel, and majesty embrace.  It is a place that makes me think of the moment that God stood on the earth and looked down at a clod of uneven dirt in His hand.  The moment just prior to making the creature that would tread upon such uneven clods in a pair of flip-flops and ponder their potential.  A moment that, perhaps, was not quite day and not quite night.  A moment that was in-between.

In-between light and dark

In-between seen and unseen

In-between wake and sleep

In-between the uneven dirt and the twilight sky

In this twilight limbo, perhaps God looked down at the coarse, earthen dirt He used to make us

In this twilight limbo, perhaps He looked up and thought about His heavenly abode, way up high beyond the stars

The twilight limbo where time stood still

In the moment before He shared His image

While the angels looked on

And all of creation held its breath

While He breathed His Spirit into the dirt

And pause, ponder, marvel, and majesty embraced

Creating a treasure of simplicity, complexity, mundane, and wonder

"Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness'....so God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them." (Gen 1:26,27)

"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Gen 2:7)

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of Your hands; You put everything under their feet." (Psalm 8:3-6)

"Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty. The Lord wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent....How many are Your works, Lord! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures." (Psalm 104:1,2,24)

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:16,17)