Isaac of Nineveh and Micro Photos of Grains of Sand

I like Isaac of Nineveh who said, "Be a herald of God's goodness". Against all preaching and announcing of life's negatives, this 7th Century Syrian Bishop insisted that the vocation of the follower of Jesus is to herald God's goodness.

Not that I've seriously read Isaac of Nineveh, but I've come across him now and then. Most recently in Olivier Clement's The Roots of Christian Mysticism, a catena of patristic texts threaded by Clement's commentary. I keep it handy because it provides food for rumination on any page I open.

In a chapter on the difficult love, that is the demand and cost of loving God and neighbour, Isaac is quoted to show that the Divine Love outshines and indeed overwhelms our own effort, and in doing so doesn't obliterate them but redeems them.

As a grain of sand does not balance a load of gold, so the effect of God's justice does not counterbalance His compassion.  As a handful of sand thrown into the ocean, so are the sins of frail flesh as compared with God's providence and mercy. As a fountain that flows abundantly is not dammed by a handful of earth, so the mercy of the Creator is not vanquished by the wickedness of the creatures.

Now speaking of grains of sand – I recently bought this book as a visual tonic. The micro-photographs are amazing, exept our capacity to be amazed suffers from the deflation of that word being over-used.  Likewise the word awesome. But using the words without the downward drag of careless overuse, the photographs do cause what Arthur Quiller Couch calls 'cerebral inconveniences', and their beauty does hint at the transcendent – so yes, amazing, and awesome.

Now when I read about sand in the Bible I have a much richer sense of what a grain of sand looks like – and the individuality and beauty of each and every one of them – that;s another overused cliche, often used in churches, as we pray for 'each and every one of them'. But I can think of few better uses of the phrase than sich an inclusive set of brackets – each and every one. Maybe the one biblical text where grains of sand don't get such a good press is when foolish builders build houses, not on solid higher ground, but on flood plains!