Unutterable Muddiness of Mud

      I love these words written by John Piper about why he loves G.K.Chesteron (and I agree wholeheartedly!):

• "We both marvel that we are swimming in the same boundless sea of wonders called the universe.

• We both are amazed not by sharp noses or flat noses, but that humans have noses at all.

• We both think it is just as likely that the reason the sun rises every morning is not because of some so-called “law,” but because God says, “Do it again.” And that he says it more like a delighted child than a dour chief.

• We both believe logic and imagination are totally compatible and that neither will be useful without the other.

• We both believe that the magic of the universe must have meaning, and meaning must have someone to mean it.

• We both believe that the glories of this world are like goods rescued from some primordial ruin — a ruin whose evidences are everywhere. 

• And we both believe that paradox is woven into the nature of the universe, and that resisting it drives a person mad. “Poets don’t go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. . . . The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

These and a hundred other happy, world-opening agreements keep me coming back, because nobody says them better than Chesterton. Like C. S. Lewis, he sees more wonder in an ordinary day than most of us see in a hundred miracles. I will keep coming back to anyone who helps me see and be astonished at what is in front of my face — anyone who can help heal me from the disease of 'seeing they do not see.'"


     Can I just add a hearty "Amen?!"  Might we never get over the astounding wonder of this world created by a majestic, omnipotent God who loves to delight His children and who rejoices in color and variety and beauty even more than we do (in our best moments).  
     I'll never forget a quote I heard when I was in high school.  Way back then--in the dark ages--I had never heard of G.K. Chesterton, but our wonderful minister, Dr. Bauman, loved to quote him.  The quote Dr.Bauman referred to by Chesteron reminded me of Piper's observations.  Chesterton wrote:  "I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do.  The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me; the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud."  
     Isn't it funny the things we remember?  Those words, especially "the unutterable muddiness of mud," have stuck with me all these long years.  I can't remember names of good friends or passwords or how to do the most basic function on my computer that my child has just explained to me... but I can still recall the way Chesterton's words resonated with me.   
     Perhaps that is one of the greatest delights of having children: rediscovering the wonder and "fierce pleasure in things being themselves."  A bubble, a bowl, a balloon, a bird, a bottle--each a cause for ceaseless celebration and careful observation.  And how sad when we lose that joy, that wonder in the ordinary: the remarkable, the ordinary--but actually miraculous for those with eyes to see--things and people placed in our paths.  They are infused with supernatural glory if we could but train our hearts to see behind each of them the God of all glory.  He is the God behind it all: the God of crimson sunsets, the God of leaping deer, the God of laughing friends, the God of singing streams, the God of waving tree branches, the God of baby smiles and coos, the God of symphony and song,  the God of sweet wrinkled faces of the aged, the God of water, fire, steel and  muddy mud.  
     And He is the God of a rough wooden cross and an empty stone tomb.
     What a God.  What a Creator.  What a Savior.  
     Rejoice in His creation.  Rejoice in His gifts.  Rejoice in Him.  In Him you will never lack for reasons to be amazed and to celebrate.  To God be the glory.