The Veil
The Veil
Fingertips close enough to touch the Hand of God remind me of the Painting by Michaelangelo where God’s Hand and man’s hand are reaching for one another’s and their fingertips are touching. How close we are to Our Creator.
A newborn baby is encased within a sac. The sac is opened, the umblilical cord is cut and the baby enters earthly life. The thought comes to my mind that we are encased within a veil or a sac until the point of our birth into eternal life. In picturing that veil or sac, it is within the realm of my possibility of belief, that we are very near to heaven. I think heaven is only an arms’ length away. I think when I stretch my arm I can touch heaven with my fingertips.
This is not foreign to me, for did the Lord not say, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and “The Kingdom of God is within you?” I believe heaven is all around us and we are seeing darkly most of our lives as if through a veil. If I think about it, I can understand …. “Fear not, for I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” This encapsulation is the Love of God all around us. The nearness of God, without limitation of time or space, is as close as we accept Him to be.
Let us look at our bodies. We are composed of skin that encases our organs, our bones, our blood streams. Our skulls encase our brains. There are many encapsulations or veils to encase us. Our hearts are encased within our chests. Our lungs are encased within our diaphragms. We have protection all around us supporting our organs, supporting our systems. We have spiritual souls parts of who we are. It is a miraculous achievement of creation that we think, breathe, live and have our beings. The Author of ALL creation had ALL of us in His Mind’s Eye from the beginning of time.
We have been given an earth that is held within the Universe by gravity, a sort of protective encasement, so that earth does not fall into an infinitesimal pit. The Plan of God for the Universe is that planets do not bump into one another. In essence all planets are suspended within an imaginary case of sorts.
Veils, sacs, encasements are protective. It is my thought that we are on this side of the veil to become purified for to see God before it is our time to see Him, we could not stand it. His Light and brightness would be blinding and we could not bear it. We would hide in shame, in the shame of sin. On the other hand, He came humbling Himself by taking on human form and became like one of us, although He, Himself was sinless. He came to show us the way through the veil. We do not have to flounder about anymore like fish out of water. He took on the weight of all the sin in the world, the sins of our ancestors, our sins, and the sins of future generations in one unfathomable Passion, His Passion and Death, and ultimately, His Glorious Resurrection.
We need this veil, this separation of sorts, and yet we are united to Him when we live according to the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Perhaps separation is not exactly right, when for lack of a better word, I mean that thin line between earthly life and eternal life as the ‘Veil.’
Death is a passage through the veil. I am not so sure Heaven is a WAY up THERE, up in the skies. I think it could be right in front of us, alongside of us, all around us and if we thought that way, sinning might be harder to commit. If I believed Heaven was that close, my head would hang in shame at the sins I committed right in front of His Beautiful Face. And… is it not so when we do sin, that we are sinning in front of His Countenance because He knows and sees all things. Ought we not always to be aware that He does see all things and He does know our deeds done in secret? We may not see beyond the veil, but surely God does, God, Who is all pure and begot the Son also pure, born of a pure Mother, cared for by a pure and chaste spouse and foster father. Then, sadly there is this one, sinful before the Spotless Lamb. I am not into self-denigration, but I see myself as a sinner, repentent, forgiven, and still on this side of the veil.
The veil affords us time, time to get our acts together. As long as we live this earthly life, we are continually given opportunities to grow spiritually if we but accept them. Every moment on this side of the veil is a gift. We can use the gift productively or destructively. It is up to us. The Gift of Life given to us can be wasted or used for our own betterment and the betterment of others. We can curse the darkness or bless the Light. Let us embrace the Light of Christ.
While we are here, let us fold our hands in prayerful supplications and raise our hands in thanksgivings and in praises. We have much in common in our human family, each one of us so like the other, in all things, even in sin, but pray God, not mortal sin that is unrepentent therefore unforgiven. We must pray for Salvation and Conversions for souls seemingly lost. We cannot know on this side of the veil what our prayers have wrought. We may just find one day, that we have prayed many to Heaven.
The veil is thin. Life is fragile. We know not when the Bridegroom will call. We ought to live as though the Kingdom of Heaven IS at hand, as though the Kingdom of Heaven IS within us. Thinking of this literally helps me to watch my behavior and helps me in my prayer life. This can be a good source of contemplation and meditation. The key is prayer, prayer in silence, prayer in community.
When we behold the sight of an unborn baby in an ultra-sound, we become hopeful and await in joy the infant’s imminent birth. Likewise, when the Lord, His Angels, His Saints and His Blesseds behold our impending births through the veil into eternal life, they await with joy our arrival. Let us not disappoint them. Let us continually prepare our souls for the moment we finally break through the veil and are welcomed to the Banquet of the Lamb. There will be much dancing and rejoicing on that great and glorious day.
Mel Patterson © 2005, January
Fingertips close enough to touch the Hand of God remind me of the Painting by Michaelangelo where God’s Hand and man’s hand are reaching for one another’s and their fingertips are touching. How close we are to Our Creator.
A newborn baby is encased within a sac. The sac is opened, the umblilical cord is cut and the baby enters earthly life. The thought comes to my mind that we are encased within a veil or a sac until the point of our birth into eternal life. In picturing that veil or sac, it is within the realm of my possibility of belief, that we are very near to heaven. I think heaven is only an arms’ length away. I think when I stretch my arm I can touch heaven with my fingertips.
This is not foreign to me, for did the Lord not say, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and “The Kingdom of God is within you?” I believe heaven is all around us and we are seeing darkly most of our lives as if through a veil. If I think about it, I can understand …. “Fear not, for I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” This encapsulation is the Love of God all around us. The nearness of God, without limitation of time or space, is as close as we accept Him to be.
Let us look at our bodies. We are composed of skin that encases our organs, our bones, our blood streams. Our skulls encase our brains. There are many encapsulations or veils to encase us. Our hearts are encased within our chests. Our lungs are encased within our diaphragms. We have protection all around us supporting our organs, supporting our systems. We have spiritual souls parts of who we are. It is a miraculous achievement of creation that we think, breathe, live and have our beings. The Author of ALL creation had ALL of us in His Mind’s Eye from the beginning of time.
We have been given an earth that is held within the Universe by gravity, a sort of protective encasement, so that earth does not fall into an infinitesimal pit. The Plan of God for the Universe is that planets do not bump into one another. In essence all planets are suspended within an imaginary case of sorts.
Veils, sacs, encasements are protective. It is my thought that we are on this side of the veil to become purified for to see God before it is our time to see Him, we could not stand it. His Light and brightness would be blinding and we could not bear it. We would hide in shame, in the shame of sin. On the other hand, He came humbling Himself by taking on human form and became like one of us, although He, Himself was sinless. He came to show us the way through the veil. We do not have to flounder about anymore like fish out of water. He took on the weight of all the sin in the world, the sins of our ancestors, our sins, and the sins of future generations in one unfathomable Passion, His Passion and Death, and ultimately, His Glorious Resurrection.
We need this veil, this separation of sorts, and yet we are united to Him when we live according to the guidance of His Holy Spirit. Perhaps separation is not exactly right, when for lack of a better word, I mean that thin line between earthly life and eternal life as the ‘Veil.’
Death is a passage through the veil. I am not so sure Heaven is a WAY up THERE, up in the skies. I think it could be right in front of us, alongside of us, all around us and if we thought that way, sinning might be harder to commit. If I believed Heaven was that close, my head would hang in shame at the sins I committed right in front of His Beautiful Face. And… is it not so when we do sin, that we are sinning in front of His Countenance because He knows and sees all things. Ought we not always to be aware that He does see all things and He does know our deeds done in secret? We may not see beyond the veil, but surely God does, God, Who is all pure and begot the Son also pure, born of a pure Mother, cared for by a pure and chaste spouse and foster father. Then, sadly there is this one, sinful before the Spotless Lamb. I am not into self-denigration, but I see myself as a sinner, repentent, forgiven, and still on this side of the veil.
The veil affords us time, time to get our acts together. As long as we live this earthly life, we are continually given opportunities to grow spiritually if we but accept them. Every moment on this side of the veil is a gift. We can use the gift productively or destructively. It is up to us. The Gift of Life given to us can be wasted or used for our own betterment and the betterment of others. We can curse the darkness or bless the Light. Let us embrace the Light of Christ.
While we are here, let us fold our hands in prayerful supplications and raise our hands in thanksgivings and in praises. We have much in common in our human family, each one of us so like the other, in all things, even in sin, but pray God, not mortal sin that is unrepentent therefore unforgiven. We must pray for Salvation and Conversions for souls seemingly lost. We cannot know on this side of the veil what our prayers have wrought. We may just find one day, that we have prayed many to Heaven.
The veil is thin. Life is fragile. We know not when the Bridegroom will call. We ought to live as though the Kingdom of Heaven IS at hand, as though the Kingdom of Heaven IS within us. Thinking of this literally helps me to watch my behavior and helps me in my prayer life. This can be a good source of contemplation and meditation. The key is prayer, prayer in silence, prayer in community.
When we behold the sight of an unborn baby in an ultra-sound, we become hopeful and await in joy the infant’s imminent birth. Likewise, when the Lord, His Angels, His Saints and His Blesseds behold our impending births through the veil into eternal life, they await with joy our arrival. Let us not disappoint them. Let us continually prepare our souls for the moment we finally break through the veil and are welcomed to the Banquet of the Lamb. There will be much dancing and rejoicing on that great and glorious day.
Mel Patterson © 2005, January
posted by Mel @ 12:35 PM
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