welfare

 It's cool that our eyes are capable of seeing such a wide range of things, and interesting also how we might look at the exact same thing and each one of us see something entirely different.  I imagine if I knew nothing about rainbows ... and I saw this, it would seem somehow sacred to me.  I understand how a rainbow happens, the science of it.  Knowing doesn't disrupt or diminish the delight. This is a magnificent image.  Just looking at the picture, I can almost feel how the air must have felt there ... in that moment. It feels holy, this veil of water interacting with light.  Stain glass in the sanctuary wants to remind me of this natural phenomenon.

Today, during church, I sort of drifted away from the sermon.  He was talking about the blood sacrifice over the doors during the Passover ... and of the blood of Christ.  (I always wonder why no one ever talks about why the blood ... why did it have to be blood.  I know what I think, but I'm interested in what others, more able then I, have put together on that.  Someone once said because blood was shed when the animal's skin became a covering for Adam and Eve.  That's not a very satisfying answer for me.  It must be something very specific about blood ... and life.  Well, I'm not really thinking about that today.  I thought of it briefly on the way to thinking about something else.

this looks similar to that ... it actually looks more like that then I might think because like this, that is constructed of small pieces.  Everything is a bunch of little pieces collected together "to be" something. Like little bitty choices stack up with one another to become ... a life.

Sitting in church ... looking at the stained glass ... I thought "I wouldn't, whether it is right or wrong I do not know, but I do know I wouldn't feel guilty for stealing the scrap of bread that would keep me alive.  And if I would rationalize "stealing" for some reason, how can I imagine I wouldn't commit any "sin" for whatever excellent reason my flesh might devise."  And I searched myself for what might make me feel guilt, or shame ... and I thought to be reduced to the place where one would do whatever ... to avoid that place surely is part choice, part circumstance, part constitution ... but mostly Grace.