As I look at those who raise their hands in worship in a church, temple or masjid, I realize for me my soul lifts up in praise to my Maker and Creator at moments when I view or hear beauty in creativity!
I saw so much of this ecstatic worship within me, as I sang with and listened to an orchestra once, with players from all over the world! As orchestra, and singers and ballerinas sang and played and danced on stage, I heard my soul whispering, “These are windows to heaven!”
Indeed, they were.
My soul lifts up in worship, when I see a beautiful painting. “How?” I ask myself, “Could there be a work so divine?” And the answer comes from above, “I opened a window!”
So, also a lovely garden, or a still lake, or a majestic mountain, all revealing beauty and grandeur, and giving us a glimpse through a window, of a life of eternity waiting for us, seeped in loveliness!
And then I open the papers, click the TV on, and hear the ghastly word, “Rape!”
From the highest peak of beauty, I stare at the lowest cesspool of grime, filth and dirt!
As much as the fingers can wield a paint brush to produce a work of art, or write a book, as much as those hands can plant a wonderful garden or landscape a beautiful scene, so also can those same hands, abuse, assault and attack, brutally, ruthlessly and violently!
Same hands!
“How?” I ask myself.
And the answer is, what are we as a people opening: Windows to heaven, or a trapdoor to the darkness below?
When there is compassion, kindness and love flowing from us, not just to our near and dear ones, but even to those of another faith, nationality or colour, then you sit on a sill of a window to heaven!
But when leaders spread hate, subtly bring about division, and turn a blind eye to injustice, then we know the trapdoor to darkness is being nudged open, inch by inch.
I see frenzied reactions to the rape in Kolkata and hear loud suggestions, some bizarre, and feel like crying, “It is not the work of a few rapists, no, but each of us, who instead of taking the brush, waving the baton, or wielding a gardeners spade to create lofty beauty, have fallen prey to those openers of the trapdoor of darkness who are letting evil in!
God, beckons us back to beauty, a beauty that lifts our souls in worship, our hearts in compassion and love and our minds for justice! A window of heavenly music, a lovely painting, a beautiful book!
But move! Quickly move away from the evil that sucks you below, from those who have allowed our nation to slide into this sludge, slime and squalor and lift yourselves from the trapdoor of lust to yon window of true beauty..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
