We couldn't stand the glory--that's why we have the valley of the shadow of death

Too much time passes. Life is full of schedules and prayers and people and lessons and chores. So little time to write. So many slips of paper with notes that don't get organized. Like all the unfinished paintings in my studio. But here's something from my time at Susan's. She was playing pieces for me that she will use in building a thematic recital for this coming fall. She'll have to list the repertoire here if she ever reads my blog. But the time to listen and reflect in the setting of her college chapel where I spend little time, and have no responsibilities, was rich. I approached her bench quietly after an especially wonderful passage and quoted what I said to Fawn after the glorious Livingston wedding about why we don't live in such beauty all the time: "We couldn't stand the glory" I had said. I said it now to Susan knowing she would remember the conversation from years ago, and all that we mean by it, having been trained to understand glory as weight, and coming from our weighty God. She finished the statement this time, reflecting what she has learned and what her music is portraying: "that's why we have the valley of the shadow of death". I scribbled the quote on a page torn from her assignment book and just came across it in my desk/accounting work. I'll never remember all that I saved it for, all the threads I hoped to weave together into an essay. But there's the quote for us to chew on anyway, rejoicing in our Sovereign Father who has given us the valley of death's shadow even while He has removed death itself, even while He also has given us His glory to praise for eternity. Someday we will no longer be in this valley.