17 August 2011

Butterflies... Dragonflies... Time Flies...

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I've been thinking about perspective lately.
And time.
How time flies {when you're having fun?}

This is the verse I've been pondering...

Remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
      Remind me that my days are numbered—
      how fleeting my life is.
 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
      My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
      at best, each of us is but a breath.

                    {from Psalm 39}


I've been pondering the evil in the world and how it seems as if God lets things just run on without stepping in. 
But I've realised it all comes down to perspective.

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Our perspective is from inside time. Our lives are only so long.
Do you remember how when you were a kid it took forever for Christmas to roll around? A year seemed like a decade.
But now, the years fly by like mere months.
I hear myself saying with monotonous repetition, "August already? It can't be! Only three months til Christmas? Didn't we just have Christmas???"


That's because now a year is a mere 1/40th of my life. But when I was seven, a year was a whole 1/7th.


For the Ancient of Days, thousands of years must seem like a few days from his perspective of an eternity.

So where it seems to us that evil goes unpunished and the wheels of Justice turn ever-so-slowly, from where God sits it was just a few days ago that Jesus was on earth doing the whole "dying on the cross" thing.
Only a few hours ago slavery was abolished. World War Two ended about ten minutes ago and Hitler just got his come-uppance when he had to face the Judge and explain his diabolical actions.

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Maybe the Eternal One is not as slow as we think.
To him, "A thousand years is as a day..."

Our lifespan must seem to Him as a Butterfly's lifespan seems to us. A butterfly lives just one month.
Such a short time to live a whole life.
A beautiful fleeting life. But to a butterfly who knows nothing different, a month is a lifetime.

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A dragonfly lives a whole year, but spends most of its life underwater as a grub, finally crawling out of the water and flying free.

I am thinking the baby dragonfly grub can't possibly imagine life beyond the water.
Baby dragonfly might spend his life wondering how he got there and is there more beyond his life in the gloomy depths of the pond? Did he really have a mother (he's never seen her) or is he just an accident?
Where did his brothers and sisters disappear to? When its over is it just over... or is there more?

Of course from our amateur scientist perspective the fact that the baby dragonfly is so ignorant of his future life flying around as a winged dragonfly is just laughable. All that worrying for nothing. Of course there's more for him than just life as a grub!

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See any similarities there? Huh? Huh? I won't point out my obvious parallel to us humans. Think about it.


How can we possibly imagine life beyond this when we've never known anything different? How can we imagine life beyond time, beyond sorrow, grief, pain, suffering?

How can we conceive what it would be like to see the world from a different perspective when this is the only reality we know? I have to try really hard to use my imagination so I can poke my head above the waterline.

Every now and then I catch a glimpse of what might be, a flash of insight from a song, a wisp of inspiration from a verse.

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I'm loving the lyrics of this Anna Nalick song:

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe


Life's like an hourglass glued to the table. That's profound there, girlie.
Nothing we can do about it, as time whizzes past. We can't catch it in our hands. we can't stop it or slow it down.
All we can do is breathe in and out and make the best of the life we have been given.
Keeping in mind that there is a reality beyond this one we can only guess at, but which puts all the crazy into perspective and helps make sense of the crap.





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14 comments:

jacksta said...

what beautiful thoughts Simone. And so well written.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely lovely Simone - I love the images you've put in there too

Nikki said...

I. Love. This.
x

Anonymous said...

Lovely post! Beautiful & so profound - that Psalm is one of my absolute favourite versus. I love how it essentially just asks us to LIVE now and trust God. Easier said than done of course when you ask why? why? WHY? each time a child is harmed in our country or anywhere in the world. But you just do what you can to be & do the best on your own life journey and trust God who created us probably knows what He is doing!

Trees said...

Such beautiful words, makes God's involvement in our lives when we call or when we hurt all the more profound. His Holy Spirit pushing down below the water line for me, giving me a taste of what's to come.

Rebecca said...

Beautiful! You're doing such a great job with your kids, they're going to look back and have great memeries of the heart and warmth you put into being a mum!

Jen said...

interesting post my friend

Meghan Maloney Photography said...

Wowee this post took my breath away. Such profound words here Simone. Yes you have totally hit the nail on the head about our limited perspective and how futile it is for us to try and understand the mysteries of life with a mind that 'knows no different'. But what a day it will be when we shall see things as they really are, and until then we just BELIEVE! xx

Widge said...

Awesomesauce

That song Breathe is one of my all time faves. Loving those images you found too!

Anonymous said...

Hello. And thank you at once for such an amazing web site. I'll be visiting it on a regular basis.

championm2000 said...

Beautiful and just what I needed to hear after losing perspective on my troubles this week...so glad your PYHO was right after mine (and glad you took time to visit and leave a comment). Look forward to reading more!

alicia said...

Wow. So profound. This is something that has also been on my mind as of late and you have broken it down so nicely. Love those last lyrics.

Shell said...

Such a thoughtful perspective.

Today has seemed to be an eternity b/c it is my middle son's first day at kindergarten. Yesterday flew by.

Jennifer @ JenniferDukesLee.com said...

That whole time-space continuum thing rocks my world. Have you read some of C.S. Lewis' thoughts on it?

Your insights here are profound and beautiful and relevant. Thank you.

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