I was praying as I was driving the other day. It was in a back road on a hill with a beautiful view. I am not sure why the pavement at the edge of the road drew my attention, besides the obvious reason of staying away from the edge, but it did. I noticed the pebbly nooks and cranny in the asphalt next to the powdery dirt with the smooth yellow of a flower from a manicured yard next to the red bricked driveway leading to someone’s home. Over the edge of the hill I could see the the variety of trees in the narrow valley below and on the hills across the valley - eucalyptus, oak, pine as well as others. Where there were no trees I could see the long dry chaparral in the golden brown it wears during the hot summers in Southern California. A mere months ago, the fields were a vibrant yellow from the wild mustard together with the green the chaparral dons in winter and spring. The attached picture was from that springtime.
The beauty of nature never ceases to impact me, but that is not what drew my attention. It was the texture of being, It was the tangibility of it all; the grainy texture of the dirt, the roughness of the gravel, the brittleness of the brush. The sheer being of it all. I think I was given a reminder about the tremendous gift of being. The fact that this physical world is a gift that we so often don’t recognize because we are to busy living in it. God has bestowed on man a unique gift of being in both body and spirit. This physical world, and our physical being is good and a marvel to behold.
One of the things that I like about Catholicism is that the sacraments given to us by Christ (Eucharist, Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick) all incorporate physical as well as spiritual. Our sacramentals as well, holy water, scapulars, candles, incense, bells, etc. also incorporate appeal to the whole man. Christ came to us bodily and engages with all of our senses - we are not disembodied spirits, but are grounded in this beautiful world created for us by God.
When you have a moment, sit back and appreciate the texture of being. It is a gift.
