Out of Touch

"Is it not strange, the darkest hour

That ever dawned on sinful earth,

Should touch the heart with softer power, For comfort, than an angel's mirth?

That to the Cross the mourner's eye should turn, Sooner than where the stars of Bethlehem burn?"

Touch is one of the most profound senses we have the pleasure to experience in our existence. For all our eyes tell us, the world would simply be a collection of colors and pictures. For all our ears would tell us, our world would just become a chorus of noise and random volumes. But our ability to tough allows us to feel a level of depth in the world what we otherwise would not. Our ability to tough rarely ends with our physical grasp, rather the bounds of our reach are existential, producing an energy and conveyance so powerful that all of our other faculties cannot register. Though touch, we can experience coldness even on the hottest days, experience friction in the smoothest of places, and hardness on even the softest of ground.

The trigger of the sound of the conch shell is not the sound of the waves nor the asperous exterior, rather than the seed of longing the sense plants in the soul. While the experience of the conch reminds of the vastness of the oceans, it merely reminds of the desire for the fullness of the ocean, not simply for the object.

And so it is when we come about Calvary.  We make our annual pilgrimage past the consolatory cross that sits upon the hill. The hill on it's own standing would have been much forgotten, but the drops of blood that fell at the feet consecrated the ground beyond what is earthly. Yet for the pain that befell both man and savior on that Friday, no hill in all of man carries that gladness and hope that was borne in that hill.

For without that hill, without that death, our feelings might well end on the surface of the living and the dead. Then heights and depths of his love that extend a reach further than we were build to experience. Out of darkness came triumph. Though his grave came the temple. Through his blood came grace.