This is
the ship of pearl which, poets feign,
Sails
the unshadowed main, -
The
venturous bark that flings
On the
sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs
enchanted, where Siren sings,
And
coral reefs lie bare,
Where
cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
In webs
of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked
is the ship of pearl!
And
every chambered cell,
Where its
dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail
tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before
thee lies revealed, -
Its
irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year
after year beheld silent toil
That
spread his lustrous coil;
Still,
as the spiral grew,
He left
the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole
with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up
its idle door,
Stretched
in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks
for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of
the wandering sea,
Cast
from her lap, forlorn!
From thy
dead lips a clearer note is born
Than
ever Triton blew from wreathѐd horn!
While on
mine ear it rings,
Through the
deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: -
Build
thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift
seasons roll!
Leave
thy low-vaulted past!
Let each
new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee
from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou
art free,
Leaving
thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
The Chambered Nautilus, Oliver Wendell Holmes
I recently
acquired a book of poems at a birthday party….and it wasn’t even my birthday! 😊 My friend hosted a group of women who each
brought a gift that they considered to be one of their “favorite things”. Then we played a game similar to a white
elephant gift exchange, and after some rounds of opening gifts and stealing, I
went home with a book of poems.
Admittedly,
I don’t read a lot of poetry. But I know
that often stories and poems have a way of putting truth into witty and
memorable prose. The song, “To All the Poets I Have Known” encapsulates that thought so well.
So, when
I read The Chambered Nautilus last weekend, it was just what my soul
needed to be reminded of. As the poem
describes, a nautilus is a marine invertebrate with a remarkable shell. Every 150 days or so, it adds a new, larger
chamber and moves into it. It uses the
past chambers as floatation devices – filling them with the right amount of air
to suspend themselves at whatever level of the oceanic column they desire. They are able to balance weight and buoyancy
as they grow. This beautiful shell is a
testament to a creature that is always moving forward, always growing, and uniquely
able to use the past to rise above.
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ line, “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,” struck me.
Like the
nautilus, what does it look like to keep moving forward - regardless of the
joys or sorrows of the past? What does
it look like to increase in soul size…and each year have a bigger perspective?
I
believe that type of growth can only happen when we look outside our circumstances
or emotions and choose to dwell on a larger, eternal vision. When we choose to focus on eternal life.
Those
who follow Jesus are promised eternal life (John 3:16). But eternal life is not something that starts
after we die. In John 17:3, we are told
what eternal life is:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God,
and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent.”
Eternal
life is to know God! And the more I know
God, the more I will grow.
Just 2
nights ago, I was driving in my car and heard a radio host talking. Her musings threw me into a deep dive into Scripture
as soon as I arrived home. She mentioned
a concept I never thought about before.
Here’s what I learned:
1.
No one can see the face of God and live.
a.
Exodus 33:20 “‘But’, he said, ‘you cannot see my
face, for man shall not see me and live.’”
b.
Earlier in the chapter, we see that Moses spoke
with the Lord “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (v.11), so
clearly you can interact with God. But
the above verse seems to imply that you cannot see God in his fullness and
glory or you will die.
c.
Someday, after death, we will see God’s face
(Revelation 22:4).
2.
We are told to continually seek His face.
a.
2 Chronicles 7:14 tells people to
humble themselves, pray and seek God’s face.
b.
Psalm 105:4 “See the LORD and his strength; seek
his presence continually!”
c.
Psalm 24 says that those who have clean hands
and a pure heart can stand in God’s holy place, and “such is the generation of
those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob” (verse 5).
d.
Psalm 27:8-9 says, “You have said, ‘Seek my
face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face,
LORD, do I seek.’”
Why are we told that we could die by seeing God in his
fullness and yet also told to seek His face?
Are these two things contradictory?
Nope.
The Christian life is all about taking up our cross and
dying.
When we see God for who He really is, we die to ourselves. We become who we were meant to be: bigger in soul and more enamored with and
focused on Jesus.
If we want to be like a nautilus, continually moving forward
and growing in size, then we need to focus on staring at the face of Jesus. Eternal life is knowing God…not focusing on
or being overrun by our own circumstances…whether they be pleasant or
unpleasant.
These ideas have been such an encouragement to me in the
past few days, and I pray that they encourage you as well. Each day, may we focus on Jesus and gain a
bigger vision so we may, like the nautilus, build more stately mansions for our
soul. Eternal life of knowing God can
start now!
And one day we will leave our “shells” behind and experience
I John 3:2:
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has
not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is.”
