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THIS LITTLE PAINTING reminds of William Blake’s quatrain,
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
—Auguries of Innocence
Most sand was once rock. Imagine a single grain on the palm of your hand. It the sun hits it just right, it may glint like crystal quartz. Remember the irritation of one bit of grit in your eye or mouth. Then consider the importance of sand for civilization: glass, ceramics, concrete, agriculture and more. Picture the deposits of sand unearthed in huge midwestern sandpits. Think of the earth’s vast deserts, like the Sahara— imagine mega tons of rock and eons of wind and water slowly grinding solid rock into small grains. Think of blinding sand storms spewing dust into the atmosphere. Did you know that every raindrop is formed around a tiny minute bit of dust? Although a lifetime is not long enough to contemplate all the uses, mysteries and complexities hidden in a grain of sand, I would not choose to give my lifetime to sand; eventually, it would grow tiresome. Fortunately, the amazing love of Our Father never grows tiresome or old. If I lived forever, I might eventually learn all there is to know about sand, but I’ll never know all about a God who is love. My little watercolor is such a trivial reminder of great mysteries. Googling ‘the world in a grain of sand’ on a search engine brings up many provoking websites. I didn’t read any because I didn’t want another person’s thinking to influence or expand my own short reflection on sand; I’d had enough of it. Happily, seeing so many those websites reminded me that every person, just like every website and every snowflake and grain of sand, is unique, and that God has a URL for each one of us. His server is up and running; we connect by Faith through prayer.
