Silver

“When the sun falls on the silver,

It heightens my gaze,

And brightens my eyes…”

Here are some lines from a poem I wrote many years ago—it has to be about twenty-five years ago now—

 

As I remember, I wrote it when all of a sudden, in the middle of a cold drab winter day, I experienced an interior grace, which made me clearly realize that even in the most empty circumstances, and in the most painful, something unexpectedly beautiful can come along to change our perspectives entirely.

The Silver

my mother used to have a sterling silver tea set in our dining room.   It had a beautiful little sugar bowl and creamer, and a special tea and coffee decanter, all arranged and set up on an elegant, ornate, large tray. .  Every piece of it was very rich, made of authentic silver.   My mother did not have a lot of things like that, so she valued this particular wedding present, (a costly tea set, given to her with love) she proudly displayed it, prizing it with gratitude and joy.

Once in a while, when it was our job to polish it, (that was not our favorite task) it was necessary to get into all the little grooves and crevasses of the silver pieces, into all the intricate ridges where the handles of each pieces had many little curly-cues on them that attached them to the tea and coffee pots; we had to get into every tiny nook and cranny, and scrub them with a rag, till every piece shone clean, and was free of tarnish.

 

My mother’s silver tea set was set out on a side-board in the dining room which stood up against the glass patio window, and when the sun would come streaming in those big bay windows, it shone right on the silver, and oh, how it gleamed!

 

“When the sun falls on the silver, it glistens and shines!

Even though I cannot see physically, I can feel the silver shining, through my inner eye and I can almost see the glistening of its light!

 

This is the way in which I experience daily life… life is transformed by the light of God, which shines in on ordinary events. The most mundane activity, such as cleaning a dirty tarnished tea set, can be made beautiful and filled with light and glory, if it is done for the right reasons—offered with a pure   heart, up to god.

 

Life can seem ordinary and drab, on a cold winter day, when no light shines.

Have you ever heard anyone say– if they are asked how there day is going-“Oh, there’s nothing new; different day, same old stuff?”

I really don’t like that saying because it takes the beauty out of life; there seems to be no joy or wonder in god’s gifts at all.

No day is the same; no day is just ordinary, especially if it is lived in and for God and for the purpose of loving others.

 

Even the most painful days can be made beautiful if I remember and recall most fervently that life is not just made up of what is visible, tangible and just here on earth, but it is made up of all the little steps that we take in a bigger context, in a bigger picture toward God.

 

The sunlight of god’s love can heal a weary soul; revive a downcast spirit, renew a dried up person, and enliven a deadened heart.

 

God’s love comes in the every day packages; of a kind word from a friend, or in the song we may here on the radio in the car. If we let such things sink in, we may receive an unexpected gift given by someone who hardly knows us!  God’s love can come to us through sights, smells and sounds, through a beautiful sunset, through the smell of good hot bread baking in the oven, or the sound of a loved-one’s laughter or through beautiful music.

That is how the silver is illumined, how it shines. Our lives, our perspectives, too, can be changed by divine sunlight; our ordinary days can become extraordinary!.