Existence

I just finished one of the most beautiful books. It wasn't adventurous or suspenseful. It had no chapters and no plan. It was the most extraordinary meandering book I've ever laid my eyes on. It's title is Gilead. It's simply about an elderly pastor who had a very young son, whom he loved so dearly. That's what the whole book is about. The immense and unimaginable love and gratitude this father has for his son's life being intertwined with his own life. That's what just gets me about this book. The way its structured seems to say that the only important part about reading this book is getting a glimpse of how humans should love the humans around them. So deeply. So full. It has the most magnificent words and thoughts and tidbits of theology. This book is pure poetry. I just have to share some of its words because its just too beautiful not to. Here's some of my favorites...

“Your hair is straight and dark, and your skin is very fair. I suppose you're not prettier   than most children. You're just a nice-looking boy, a bit slight, well scrubbed and well mannered. All that is fine, but its your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined.” 

“I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life- and everyone does wonder sooner or later - you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle...if only I had words to tell you.”

“That is just a way of saying I could never thank God sufficiently for the splendor He has hidden from the world and revealed to me in your sweetly ordinary face.”

“ I was struck by the way the light felt that afternoon. I have paid a good deal of attention to light, but no one could do it justice. There was a feeling of a weight of light-pressing the damp out of the grass and pressing the smell of sour old sap out of the boards on the porch floor and burdening even the trees a little as a late snow would do. It was the kind of light that rests on your shoulders the way a cat lies on your lap. So familiar.”

“The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light within light. It seems like a metaphor for something. So much does. It seems to me to be a metaphor for the human soul, the singular light within the great general light of existence. Or it seems like poetry within language. Perhaps wisdom within experience. Or marriage within friendship and love.”

“My point here is that the great kindness and providence of the Lord has given most of us someone to honor-the child his parent, the parent his child. I have great respect for the uprightness of character and the goodness of your heart, and your mother could not love you more or take greater pride in you. She loves you as God does, to the marrow of your bones. You see how godlike it is to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us.”