Bird’s Eye View of the World

Sue, my daughter’s art teacher, told me she has seen lots of bluebirds today. We wondered if it had anything to do with the rain. “I don’t know”, said mother hen (me), but how awesome to observe them. We stopped matting student artwork for a minute and paused to enjoy the view from her art room picture window -– a misty, grey field edged by woods.

Those blue birds have the gift of flight with the ability to soar in the vast expanse of sky. Birds overcome pull and drag and gravity which only happens to me over honey-roasted peanuts on a Southwest cabin-pressured flight. Oh for such perspective!

Yet in a different kind of internal expanse there is an “aerial view” of sorts. It is called a worldview. It is often mistaken for a position, like being a Republican or Democrat, or a value like being pro-family or pro-choice.

Think of a worldview as a lense through which you see all of life. Through the grid of Scripture these are corrected lenses and everything seems to make more sense.

Many years ago I was taught to consider the four-part paradigm of the Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation (or ReCreation). To understand each of these events with their causes and effects is to begin a journey of truth leading to freedom. In the coming days I will write about the first of these.

I wrote a song in an effort to encompass this worldview. It is God’s story in four stanzas. I paired each of these stanzas with images of the four seasons. I’ve entitled it simply, “The Story”, as it is THE story from which all others are derived.

Here is the lyric:

The Story

By Diana Beach ©2008

Out of the nothing, heaven and earth
Summer good and Eden birth
In the beginning all was fresh
Word gave life, Word gave breath
Shimmer and sparkle and shine
Joy be Three in One Divine

Into the broken autumn chill
Wood and fruit and venomous will
First man Adam, innocent Eve
Juice-stained face of the deceived
Shimmer and sparkle and shine
Man has traded the divine

Deep to the womb of simple flesh
Hope’s a babe at Mary’s breast
Bread and wine and ringing nails
No winter tomb of death prevails
Shimmer and sparkle and shine
Jesus saved this heart of mine

Verdant splendor new heaven and earth
Tongue and tribe in spring of rebirth
Desire of His bidding robed in white
To wed and feast and drink from the vine
Shimmer and sparkle and shine
Wedded into Joy Divine.

Okay so now immona sang fo’ you. (the video is at the end of this post). This is my living room which is fairly clean at the moment, nothing sticky today. Dearest Peter is recording me and JP is watching a slide show of family pictures on TV through his Xbox and thinks the song is a good soundtrack. I like that.

I did NOT retouch my makeup – it’s just my natural beauty (okay just kidding, just had to say that). Behind me is a giclée of my friend David Arm’s commissioned work entitled, “God’s Story”. It is truly amazing – a gift to me by a very dear friend after I was widowed three-plus years ago.

I could blog about this painting for days but instead I’ll point you to a link if you care to learn more about it and get a much better view of the real thing: http://www.christcommunity.org/Home/OurVisionValues/GodsStory.aspx.

I am so romanced by the Story. It is so beautiful and tragic, humbling and renewing. It starts and ends with hope. I found my true God in this Story (abandoning the sorry one I had made), and subsequently my true self, purpose, and freedom as well.

I encourage you to press into yourself regarding the worldview you are living from. If you are not so sure about what your paradigm is, my hope is that you will overcome some drag and pull and alight into the expanse that is there for you.

With love for you,

One of Christ’s beloved,

Diana