The Immensity of Imminence

The first real snow of the season imparted several inches in one day and made a brilliant sight of the world.  Everything was white.  Each tree branch was heavy with the weight of snow. 

            Driving home from Mass, we marveled at the beauty of it all and at the sheer magnitude.  Think of how many individual, tiny snowflakes have to come together to cover a space of earth much farther than the eye can see with four inches of snow!  Then think of the fact that no two of those snowflakes are identical – each is a unique masterpiece from the hand of God.

            That morning our good priest had commented in his homily that God is not the distant deist Watchmaker who wound up the universe and sent it on its way, and who remains aloof from it all.  No, that is not our God at all.  His immensity is such that the whole universe cannot contain Him, and yet his imminence is such that the whole universe does contain Him, for in Him we live and move and have our being.  Our God created the universe in His love and He sustains that universe and every creature at every moment by that same love.  He loves everything that He has made without exception.  Not a sparrow falls that He does not know it.

            Neither does a single snowflake fall that He does not know it.  Not only does He know it falls, He knows just where it falls.  He knows just how the wind will affect the particular atmosphere around which every individual snowflake falls and will guide it to its proper place on the earth. 

If I may venture an opinion, I think that He goes further than merely knowing these things.  I think the Divine Artist guides the snowflake from the beginning to the end.  He draws up just the right speck of dust into the air and guides it to the right cloud that He pushes to just the right height in the heavens and sends to the proper place in the sky.  He guides the frost crystals and weaves them around that speck of dust until it is perfectly balanced, intricately designed, and uniquely beautiful (If you’ve ever seen the book Snow Crystals by William Bentley, you know what I’m talking about).  He continues to move the cloud to just where He wants it and sends the flake forth, guiding the wind by His loving hand to place the snowflake precisely where He wants it, whether it be on top of a frozen blade of grass, a pile of deep snow, or an already burdened pine bough. 

            Now think about that same process being performed on about a hundred bazillion snowflakes at the same time covering miles and miles of earth.  More than that!  It is being done in numerous locations throughout the world while completely different weather phenomena are happening elsewhere that are no less guided by His love! 

            All this is so obviously beyond human capacity that it is hard even to contemplate.  I mean, if I had to place enough individual snowflakes to cover just one of those tree branches, it would take forever!  And He is doing it to a numberless multitude of trees at the same time in a matter of hours!  That’s not to say that He couldn’t do it instantly either, but for some beautifully patient reason He does His work slowly.  There are probably reasons beyond what I could imagine, but one that comes to mind is that He does it simply to prolong the beauty in hopes of catching our attention.  For it is not only the finished product that is beautiful, but the process itself is a wonder that thrills the soul.  And to think it all only lasts a few days at the most around here. 

            As we marveled at the magnificence of the snow around us, we turned our thoughts not only to the snow that covered the trees, but to the trees themselves.  I thought about maple sugaring and how wonderful that whole process is.  The tree must first die back into dormancy in the autumn.  The sap retreats into the roots of the tree for its winter rest.  As this is happening, the leaves cease to produce chlorophyll and they blaze with all manner of colors.  Then they fall from the tree and impart calcium and other minerals that the roots thrive on and thereby provide for their own soil requirements.  Then, for all the eye can see, nothing happens in that barren tree until buds begin to open in early spring.  But long before that, the sap begins to run.  God who fills all is there in intimate observance of the cellular structure of the inner tree and by His love He calls it back to life by drawing the sap up from the roots back through the trunk and into the limbs, scions, and branches until the life that human eyes can perceive finally begins. 

            But it is during this hidden wakening that we tap the trees and collect the sweet sap that we boil down into syrup and sugar.  There is such a narrow window for this.  You must have cold nights and warm days to get the sap to run well and the sap must be collected before the buds come on or the syrup will be bitter.  And none of this would happen if the tree didn’t first die in autumn so that it could rise again in spring. 

            Not only does our God know all this in His omniscience, He is present to it in His omnipresence.  Not only is He present to it, He effects it by His omnipotence.  Not only does He effect it, He effects it in love, for all is directed by His love, for He is love and He does nothing except by love.

            I am often in awe of the fact that God did not make everything in a purely utilitarian way (perhaps only a child of our epoch would even consider making anything in a purely utilitarian way).  The world could have been bare and ugly while still sustaining life.  But that would not be the work of our God.  He made everything marvelously useful and beautiful at the same time.  And some things, as far as I can tell, are just beautiful for no other reason than being beautiful.  Why that fleeting flourish of color at dawn and dusk?  Why the thousands upon thousands of fireflies shining in the fields and trees?  Why the brilliant display of foliage in autumn? 

            St. Bonaventure says well that God created all things “not to increase His glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it” (CCC 293).  The immense complexity, the interconnectedness of all creation, the marvelous attention to the smallest detail, the sheer overflowing beauty of the universe is an effusion of God Himself.  Every corner and every creature in the universe bears some vestige of His goodness.  It does not add to His glory, but flows forth from it.  What else would we expect from the God Who is love?

            But it serves another purpose since our fall.  It calls us back to Him Who is Beauty, Who is Love.  God did not allow the fall to strip the creation of its beauty, for He knew that for many it would be the strongest voice calling weary, sin-stricken souls back to Him.

           

“Question the beauty of the earth,

                        The beauty of the sea,

                        The beauty of the wide air around you,

                        The beauty of the sky;

            Question the order of the stars,

                        The sun whose brightness lights the day,

                        The moon whose splendor softens the gloom of night;

            Question the living creatures that move in the waters,

                        That roam upon the earth,

                        That fly through the air;

                        The spirit that lies hidden,

                        The matter that is manifest;

            The visible things that are ruled,

            The invisible things that rule them;

            Question all these.

                        They will answer you:

                        ‘Behold and see, we are beautiful.’

            Their beauty is their confession of God.

            Who made these beautiful changing things,

            If not One who is beautiful and changeth not?”