Seeing the genius of God in the ordinary – Set One

This morning in my study, as I glanced at my side table, a sudden glint of morning light revealed a strand of hair.  It was blond, not very long, but I knew it belonged to my wife, who the previous week had rested there.  My eyes fixed on the delicate nearly translucent fiber, entangled in the metal frame, dangling on a cliff edge, waiting for a movement to send it into the invisible.  So, I reached over and lifted it to safety. 

When we discover the sublime in something we normally call mundane, we understand the nature of God’s finest works in creation.  Take, for instance, a rare species of bird perched nonchalantly on a branch. The bird doesn’t know someone has starred unmoving at it, afraid to breathe.  To the admirer, the bird has been lifted to a place of near worship.  Sublimity exists in mundanity, yet we often don’t see beyond the familiar, to sit and observe a smaller world of beauty and meaning.  When I gazed on the strand of hair, it turned into an inspired moment:

A single strand,

Lighted, translucent in the sun

Found at my side table,

Dangling from the precipice,

About to fall into invisible.

I pluck it up, see its luster,

Remember her, this young woman

Eyes awakened by hope

Smile to greet, laughing,

So free in her skin.

This single strand I hold connects

A lifetime, eternal light

Putting in me a memory,

As I hand it back a song.

This simple strand, her hair,

Has put a smile there,

The place I save for joy to grow.

I drop it,

Now vanished

Into grainy air.

How does a piece of my wife’s hair cause me to remember a lifetime together?  The power of attachment, the levity of words colliding on a piece of paper, the beauty of a simple piece of her DNA collects every moment of our years together and imbodies them in one single arch of transcendent art, reflecting not a piece of her, but the whole.  In my mind I cherish all the ways her hair has told me I am loved.  The countless times I have buried my face in these locks and found myself outside myself in love with her. 

If we can take pause long enough, tiny worlds open. Can faith in God be nourished here?  I hope so.  By giving meaning to things like a single strand of hair, we grow our understanding of how God’s genius can be embedded in the ordinary.