An ABC of Faith

Divinity

What is divinity if it can come

Only in silent shadows and in dreams?

Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,

In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else

In any balm or beauty of the earth,

Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?

Divinity must live within herself:

Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;

Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued

Elations when the forest blooms; gusty

Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;

All pleasures and all pains, remembering

The bough of summer and the winter branch,

These are the measures destined for her soul.

So wrote Wallace Stevens a businessman-lawyer by day and a poet during his leisure time. You may have noticed that he refers to Divinity with the female pronoun. Interestingly, much in the same way that Wisdom is referred to in Scripture in feminine terms, Sophia.

The root of the word divine is literally "godly,"

Two Bible verses come to mind when I think of the word Divine. Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

and Philippians 2:7 “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

The latter linked with Charles Wesley’s verse, “emptied himself of all but love.” Our task as followers of the Christ of the human road is to see the appearance of the divine in daily life. How? By examining the day-to-day workings of our own lives, as we seek to find God's Divine hand at work, in what we might call "the capacity to see into the heart of every day;" Such discovery reflects on the significance of daily events upon our lives as well and finds that the only limit to the revelation going on all around us is our willingness to turn aside and look.

For our prayer today we use George Herberts hymn that speaks of finding the divine within the mundane of our lives.

Teach me, my God and King, 

in all things thee to see, 

and what I do in anything 

to do it as for thee.

A man that looks on glass, 

on it may stay his eye; 

or if he pleaseth, through it pass, 

and then the heaven espy.

All may of thee partake; 

nothing can be so mean, 

which with this tincture, "for thy sake," 

will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause 

makes drudgery divine: 

who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, 

makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone 

that turneth all to gold; 

for that which God doth touch and own 

cannot for less be told.