August 27, 2010 (not the thing itself)

not the thing itself

“God has, as it were,
placed Himself on display
in the art gallery of the universe.
He beckons His people, you and me,
to stand in awe
as we behold the symmetry of His attributes,
the harmony of His deeds,
the glory of His goodness,
the overwhelming and unfathomable grandeur
of His greatness; in a word, His beauty.
God is infinitely splendid
and invites us to come and bask
in His beauty that we
might enjoy Him to the fullest.”
- Sam Storms

“The books or the music
in which we thought the beauty was located
will betray us if we trust to them;
it was not in them, it only came through them,
and what came through them was longing.
These things – the beauty,
the memory of our own past –
are good images of what we really desire;
but if they are mistaken for the thing itself,
they turn into dumb idols,
breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
For they are not the thing itself;
they are only the scent of a flower we have not found,
the echo of a tune we have not heard,
news from a country we have never yet visited.”
- C. S. Lewis