Saturday, January 29, 2011

Beauty in Balance at the Beach


We live in one and many universe.  Think of reality as energy that simultaneously resonates in multiple octaves of light, parallel frequencies that overlap one another and demand progressive levels of spiritual awareness to discern and comprehend.  For example, people interpret the same stimuli differently based on their own internal frame of reference.  One man hears static noise, another perceives the cosmic symphony of an interconnected universe.  The carnal nature is relegated to five senses and four dimensions, but the spiritual nature transcends the space-time continuum and swims through eternity’s wormhole, communing with the Divine.  Love broadcasts its invitation for intimacy on every channel and frequency, permeating every consciousness octave.  However, most people lack the necessary bandwidth to receive its signal.  They do not realize that the universe is talking to them, that God is trying to get their attention.
     The chimpanzee juxtaposed the man at bottom right symbolize the carnal nature juxtaposed the regenerated nature, different levels of spiritual awareness.  The chimpanzee represents the Adamic, fallen man.  He lives through his five senses, controlled by his appetites and the pursuit of pleasure.  To his left appears a man whose who buries his head in the sand.  This depicts the carnal nature as oblivious to his surroundings.  He is absorbed in self and unconscious of the universe trying to get his attention.  The call of Love, the invitation for “the divine life” blares through the cones and into his eardrums.  However, the primate lacks capacity to receive the signal.  As implied by the caption, he hears only “the buzz.”  Scripture states that the carnal man is incapable of deciphering God’s call: “But the natural (carnal) man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).
     In contrast to “Hear the Buzz,” the caption, “He hears heaven’s music,” appears under the man who portrays the spiritual nature.  He sits in the bottom right corner, entranced in peaceful meditation, a harmonious state of bliss.  He receives the heavenly signal, God’s Love and Grace pouring forth through the universe and generating through his body as a circuit.  A crown adorns his head, an emblem of his spiritual royalty.  A gun decorated as the American flag drapes over his shoulders and fires a bouquet of flowers.  The flowers also protrude from the cones that announce “the divine life” and a “return to the Lord.”  They represent words of life, the power of Christ’s resurrection to transform the mind, to develop a new spiritual identity in the heart.  The resurrection delivers us to a new consciousness octave, an awareness of God to which we were previously “dead.”  The promise across the revolver reads, “True tranquility can be yours.”  Once God’s Love penetrates the heart, the soul receives, “…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:6).
     The upper left and right quadrants picture the universe from different perspectives, opposite doorways of perception.  At upper left, Saturn, a comet, and the stars of the firmament appear in individual solid forms, emphasizing the sensual and empirical qualities associated with the carnal nature and the physical universe.  At upper right, the mirror image of Saturn is portrayed in a fiery purple sky.  Instead of the individual stars, a blended color scheme signifies the unity and interconnectedness of the universe, as if the stars were smeared into one essence.  This represents the consciousness octave of the spiritual nature.  Saturn appears to disintegrate into an amorphous mass, picturing the dissolution of the physical creation in favor of the eternal heavens: “For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God… eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor 5:1).
     The universe thrives and teems with life.  To the carnal nature, the sun, moon, and stars are but pretty ornaments in the sky, inscrutable distractions from the rat-race world.  They “buzz” and hum, permeating harmonic resonance through the universe that echoes the original Word of God that said, “Light be.”  The spiritual man discerns a message behind this buzz, an Intelligence that controls the universe.  The caption, “He hears heaven’s music,” refers to the spiritual nature perceiving the golden chorus of the heavenly bodies, the incessant praise and worship of the sun, moon, and stars that sing glory to God in higher dimensions of light: “Praise Him sun and moon; praise Him all you stars of light” (Ps 148:3); “When the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy” (Job 38:7).
     A blonde-haired woman circles a golden pillar that suspends the heavens above the earth.  She is “stuck” in a dizzy reverie, hypnotized in a trance.  Captivated in space-time, she is trapped in endless cycles of death and rebirth, unaware of the seasons, times, and patterns that shape her life.  On the right side of the pillar her body disappears under the text, “soul,” while on the left side of the pillar her body reemerges emitting a transparent sheen under the text, “spirit.”  The adjacent captions read, “snap out of it” and “set yourself free.”
     How does one snap out of it?  How does we set ourselves free from this physical universe?  Spirit and soul must become conscious of one another.  We must transcend, “wake up,” resurrect to our sleeping spiritual identities in order to conquer our carnal natures: “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Rom 13:11).  Through faith, a childlike trust in God, we experience spiritual regeneration in the heart, a quickening to a higher octave of light: “…let us put on the armor of light… put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:12-14).
     An oculus in the heavens represents this transcendence, a gateway between space-time and eternity, between God and the physical universe.  It symbolizes freedom, escape, and divine communion.  A woman stands at the base of the pillar, staring at God face-to-face.  Although in the world, she is not of the world.  Through spiritual regeneration, she has an inexhaustible resource of comfort and peace in Christ, unfettered and direct access to God’s throne in eternity: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need” (Heb 4:16).
     The oculus is the opening through which the collective body of believers on earth access heaven.  A swimmer dives into the sky, ascending from the woman at the pillar.  This pictures the woman’s spirit piercing through the wormhole, penetrating through the gateway to Christ and into heaven.  In prayer and meditation, we stand upon the shores of eternity.  Part of us enters into direct communion with God.  The re-created spiritual identity has capacity to experience Him in His fullness.  Like the meditating believer at bottom right, the woman dives through the sky, her body remaining on earth while her heart flies into heaven, propelled by Love.
     A second believer approaches the oculus from the right, also depicted as swimming underwater.  Prayer and spiritual communion is presented as bathing, plunging, being submerged in water.  Only by surfacing through the oculus can believers finally draw air.  These references connote immersion in God’s Holy Spirit, the vehicle for communion that flows from His throne in heaven: “…he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb” (Rev 22:1).
     God broadcasts resurrection power into the hearts of men.  He uses His humble servants to reach others who are not attuned to His frequency.  The caption, “Most people learn about the love of Jesus from a friend,” illustrates the joy and privilege of sharing the tranquil waters with those who thirst, those who have yet to learn how to swim.  Until one ascends through the oculus and inhales a single breath of air in His Presence; until one transcends to the other side of eternity and experiences God as a reality in the heart rather than some abstract concept or ideal in the mind, all scriptural knowledge, morality, and religious piety are fruitless.
     True beauty in balance involves living on multiple planes, existing in multiple universes.  The “self,” that carnal nature, will remain with us as long as we reside on the physical plane, until either Christ comes or we die.  However, through the spiritual nature and the transcendent power of His resurrection, we visit other worlds: “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  In prayer and meditation, we are engulfed in His Spirit, enveloped in His Presence.  He transports us to a higher consciousness, a new harmonic frequency, an octave of awareness through which our spiritual identities abide in His perfect communal Love. 
Larry Word

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