On the back wall of the Visitor’s Center at The Abbey of Gethsemani is a plaque with some wonderfully thought-provoking words written by G. K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy. During this beautiful springtime week in this quiet place of reflection, I was brought to tears by the thought expressed.
Chesterton wrote:
Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy, for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical “encore.”
Many of my unbelieving friends and acquaintances will scoff at such a notion. To those who choose not to believe in a Creator, I won’t try to argue and rationalize them into belief even though such arguments can be made. But for those who share my belief, I hope you see each fresh sign of spring now and in the weeks ahead as a great theatrical encore by the only One capable of that act.
Repetition is not boring when it is the repetition of beauty and meaning.
Leap year lesson #87 is There is beauty in a child’s “Do it again”
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