I Was Going To Tell You...

I wanted to continue my paintings of the United Kingdom for you, but alas, my mind has been thrown from the gentle driftings and contemplations to more rigorous theological discussions. If only I had computer access on those days when I still was a tourist... If I would have, I would have told you about...

1) St. Petersburg beneath the Shadows of St. Guiles - a brass quintet from Russia plays a tear jerking rendition of Amazing Grace which swells into a New Orleans jazz style celebration of the song beneath the shadows of the massive church building, St. Guiles and a few feet from the courtyard where they executed political and religious traitors. I was going to tell you about the lump that got stuck in my throat and the tears that fell from eyes. I was going to tell you about God Almighty in the midst of that carnival affair on The Royal Mile. I was going to tell you about how I looked up and saw from massive, rising stones, held together since the 10th century, a tiny green fern growing in a crack - the impossibility - and the knowing that even though this life drives upward with all determination, it cannot last for long...and the song plays..."When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we've first begun..."

2) The Lion on the Door Knob - I was going to tell you of Belfast and the boyhood home of CS Lewis. I was going to tell you of St. Mark's, where he went to church, and how the colored signs and bulletin boards look no different than any other church's despite their famed parishioner of late. I was going to tell you of the Lion on the door knob that inspired the mind of the boy who wrote stories of "Animal Land" and how as an adult, that image of the Lion stepped off the pages and into the minds of children everywhere - Aslan, the Great. I was going to tell you of the guest book, sitting on a table in an obscure corner of a small room. I was going to tell you how "Vasso, Finland" followed "Tuscaloosa, Alabama", how Moscow came right before Tyler, Texas... of Guanacosta, Costa Rica and Toronto, Canada...of Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Bulgaria, Arkansas...I was going to tell you of another lump in my throat, more tears. I was going to tell you of a God who calls things that are not as though they were (Rom 8) and draws together a family across all barriers. I was going to tell you that the powers and principalities that divide and conquer are defeated and lay in shambles. I was going to tell you of a cross that is victorious against the splintering of humanity and how I held the proof in my own hands...how I traced the proclamation of a King and a Royal People with each name and place wrote down in that book...

I was going to tell you of silly things I did, of people I saw, of the Irishman who told me, in no uncertain terms, that "the English speak English alright, but not real English", and how I had to ask him twice to repeat it, because I couldn't understand him! I was going to tell you many things...

And, now that I think of it, perhaps I just have.

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 9/04/2004 06:10:00 PM