Revisiting a Rhema Word

Thursday, January 10, 2013 Posted by Debbie Legg

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I don’t know what it is about this one.  Since I wrote it I really haven’t been able to get it out of my head and heart.  Maybe it has something to do with comments I heard on it, or maybe… I don’t know.  This post inhabits my soul like no other I’ve written.  Here is my Flashback from August 16, 2011.

Recently I had the privilege of reading some marvelous writing by my friend Steve.  Included in his piece was the word Ikebana.  Being stumped, as usual, I pulled up the online dictionary.  

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging…if you can call it that.  Instead of focusing on blooms and colors,Ikebana relies more on the leaves and stems, the minimal use of materials, drawing the emphasis from simply color to include line, form and shape.  The focus is as much on the space between the materials as the materials themselves.

I love that.  The space is as important as the matter.   What is not seen as important as what is seen. 

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

What is seen is loneliness.  What is unseen are the stems of strength and courage in waiting for God’s timing.  What is seen is grief.  What is unseen is the seed of compassion that will grow and one day comfort another in sorrow.  What is seen is uncertainty.  What is unseen is The Rock beneath the shifting sand that holds the entire arrangement firmly in place.    

What is SEEN is TEMPORARY.  What is UNSEEN is ETERNAL.

Look for life, look for God, in the seemingly lifeless spaces.


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