Pouring out a thousand graces,
and having looked at them, with his image alone,
he passed these groves in haste;
clothed them in beauty. ——John of the Cross Canticle Stanza 5
This stanza of John’s Canticle begins to tell us of the sheer beauty of the presence of God. Despite the fact that the seeker misses the grace that God so freely bestows, it is still there. The seeker is reminded of the ease of God’s creation and the testimony it leaves to everyone. In His haste, He gives a thousand graces. The beauty of the grove is a living testimony to Him.
Through His image alone, He clothes them with beauty. This beauty is beyond anything man can muster. The creation cries out the magnificence and power of the Creator. The seeker, like us, needs to take heed of what is given. When we feel the sense of abandonment as John of the Cross felt, we can look at the Word. In Romans we are told, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.” Sometimes we do not see “the beloved” because we do not look. Nature finds Him when we are blind.
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27 KJV
A Pastor's Thoughts 