The Other Side of Nature's Door

And on the other side of nature's door lies Mind. When I see the beauty of the sun in the clouds, sheltered in moisture which is held and then dropped; when I see its grandeur in rainbow and river, sparkling in air one minute then weaving through land the next; then I know that in me lives a being whom God ordained to take his purposes further - to recreate the world He never finished. For God left nature open as a door into His divinity and it is my task - in order to complete my own creation and that of the world - to go through that door as artist and as thinker.

On the other side lies Mind. I can slip into that Mind when I will. We don't ordinarily realize we can do that. But when nature, beauty, goodness or truth strikes the Divinity in me into life - as a flint struck on stone creates fire - then the door opens. The human spirit is the creative fire destined to complete the world.

But the things we don't ordinarily realize or accomplish are, in a sense, as thin as air, or as the moisture in air. We need sun to irradiate them, to flood them with the familiarity of the gleaming rainbow, or the shining river. The colors in the rainbow are second cousin to the iris in the eye; the winding river is the course of life as it flows back to the sea. Our kinship with life is fully illustrated by them: God is an artist. The divinity in us understands His work. It enables us to push the door open and enter into Mind while at the same time allowing us to feel we have the right to do so - it belongs to our kind. We are kith and kin of God. Of course, the minute you think these thoughts, the minute you slip through, you are instantly ashamed - ashamed of your temerity and cunning: the temerity to speak of the Divine at all in terms of what lives in you; the cunning to be able to weave a path of thoughts that might take you to such a destination. After all, you are just a human child; it is your duty to be obedient and live on earth as was intended.

I feel all of these things; I feel them very keenly. I feel them as the central contradiction of my life. But rainbows will shine and rivers will flow. I can't help myself but create and create. I can't do other than believe it was meant to be so. If I think at all I must believe. We are divine children - it is our inheritance. It is your duty to strike up that fire - even if in doing so you feel disobedient; you feel the shame of going beyond what was intended. God has given us His own nature:

For beauty sails like moisture in my mind

and brightens when I let my thoughts fly free;

and all the nature in me and my kind

flows back to Him as streams will to the sea.

Jay

 

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