"Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding its face? If only we could get around in front . . ." (G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday)
My mom used to do cross-stitch and she said it reminded her of life because if you looked at the back of the cloth everything was a mess of knots. You could still see colors and vague patterns, could still get a sense of the picture; in fact, if you didn't know there was a front, you could probably convince yourself that that was what the picture was supposed to look like. But then you turn it over.
And sometimes we think we see patterns in this world, in our lives, we think we see colors and shapes and then we despair because it still looks like a mess. And we convince ourselves this is real life. We don't realize we're still on the back of the cloth. And you need all the messy knots, or else there won't be a picture.
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8 comments:
your mom is wise. and i would like to thank you for such an encouraging post. :)
I love your mom's analogy with cross-stitch!
How true that is.
Funny that you should quote from a book that my class is currently studying! (But then, God has perfect timing.)
Ben H.
I just love "The Man Who Was Thursday"! I think I have to post more quotes from it. Are you enjoying it, Ben?
mrs hewett is teaching me how to do that tomorrow. and now i will think of your moms analogy and smile :)
I wish I could claim that as my own analogy but I read it somewhere a long time ago. Nice to think that for awhile my daughter thought I was wise enough to come up with that on my own!
Very much so. I've read it before, and enjoyed reading it again, and having it explained some.
i know i didn't make it to your party, but CONGRATS! I love you muchly and I pray for God to guide you in the next steps of your life. Keep on keeping on. Enjoy your summer and get ready to rock it next year!
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