Over the Easter break we went for a walk on the cliffs in North Cornwall. The wind blowing, seagulls screeching, bracing and cold; then down to a sheltered area and the wind stops; there is an almost unnatural silence for a few moments, then the seagulls break in again.
Søren Kierkegaard’s entry into his Journal on the 29th July 1835, at the age of 22, two days before the first anniversary of his mother’s death and just six months after his sister had died, describes how he stood looking out to sea, memories of his loved ones coming to him and he ’rested in their embrace’ until the ’hoarse screech of the gulls’ reminded him that he was alone:
‘.… as I stood there alone and forsaken, and the power of the sea and the battle of the elements reminded me of my own nothingness, and on the other hand the sure flight of the birds recalled the words spoken by Christ: Not a sparrow shall fall to the ground without your Father: then all at once I felt how great and how small I was; then did those two mighty forces, pride and humility, happily unite in friendship. ..’
The reference to a sparrow is from Matthew:
‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’ Matthew 10: 29-31 [NIV]
Kierkegaard is recollecting that when we feel we are nothing, when we feel overwhelmed by our surroundings and circumstances, by the vastness of the universe: we are everything to God, we may not hear God in the howling gale, but he is there and he does care for us. Our life takes its meaning from our relationship with him.
Father when we feel small and insignificant, help us to remember that you love us.
Guy Mowbray
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