Counting Eyelashes

In the same podcast that I shared about yesterday, Kate Bowler and Wajahat Ali were talking about “apocalyptic time” (not “end times” but times where major events reveal truths that need to be uncovered).  She said:

We experience the apocalyptic time when we see the scope and magnitude of racial injustice, as we understand that structures are not just broken but that they collapse in on people, and that the weak are not sheltered, and that the poor are not cared for, and that far more people are not given the luxury of invulnerability, and can’t and won’t. And in all these forms of time, we have this feeling like we’re seeing things as they really are — like that feeling when you count your kid’s eyelashes and you think, “I see the whole world in just right now.”

https://onbeing.org/programs/kate-bowler-and-wajahat-ali-the-future-of-hope/#transcript

When I was listening to the podcast, I had literally just walked by this flower and noticed the tiniest glint of sunlight off of it.  I continued walking but then stopped and went back and looked closer and saw the sun reflecting off that one droplet of water.  This flower wasn’t more than about an inch in diameter but seeing that one glint of sunlight was a bit like “counting eyelashes.”  Seemingly insignificant but infinitely beautiful.  

And yes like Ms Bowler’s comment, there were other “bigger” things going on in my family, in the congregation I serve, and of course in the larger world around us.  But there was still that moment like a parent looking down at a newborn child sleeping in their lap and being able to have the space and time to count eyelashes.  That moment of turning back to simply take in that tiny droplet of water catching the sun at just the right moment on that tiny flower.  

Jesus said,

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:6-7