Poem for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

And That Will Be Heaven

and that will be heaven

and that will be heaven
at last…the first unclouded
seeing

…to stand like the sunflower
turned full face to the sun…drenched
with light…in the still centre
held…while the circling planets
hum with an utter joy

…seeing and knowing
at last…in every particle
seen and known…and not turning
away

…never turning away
again 

Evangeline Paterson 1928-2000

I love the image in this poem of ourselves as sunflowers.  All our lives we are doing what sunflowers are created to do – turning, turning, turning bit by bit, full face to the sun. 

Evangeline Paterson wrote of herself:

“I was brought up in a Christian environment where, because God had to be given pre-eminence, nothing else was allowed to be important. I have broken through to the position that because God exists, everything has significance.”

Her turning more and more to God enabled her to discover that God is in everything, and because God exists, everything has significance.

As we pray this week let’s stand and picture ourselves as sunflowers facing the warmth and light of God’s Son shining on us, and that will be heaven.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5

-Tina Lamb