Glass

A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.

George Herbert is remembered today in England.  It takes a little historical adjustment and width to work out why he is so spiritually significant but he represents the highest of Christian virtues from the least likely of settings.

Most of us who seek to follow Christ in the West struggle enough with the relative riches that we enjoy over against poorer people to whom God directs our gaze through his Son who had nowhere to lay his head.

 

Herbert was simply born to be great.  In an age when connections were everything he was famously and absolutely well connected.  Yet his glory seemed to be in reverse to his earthly prospects.  As his famous poem quoted above reveals he revelled in the extraordinary glory of the ordinary.

 

Here is a picture of the Parish Church he will forever be associated with.  It is only a mile or two from the grandeur of Salisbury Cathedral where his eloquent education might have more rightly been expected to be on display.  It resembles our church's scout hut in dimensions . . .

 

Bremerton Church

Praise God that not every Christian has felt the necessity to measure greatness in terms of greatness.

 

All may of Thee partake;

Nothing so small can be

But draws, when acted for Thy sake,

Greatness and worth from Thee.