Docents of Glory: Gerard Manley Hopkins (1)

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19.1

…what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown itto them. Romans 1.19

For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2.14

Continuous proclamation
Scripture teaches that the glory of God, that radiant, alarming, thrilling, and weighty manifestation of His presence, is everywhere on display in the created world. The heavens declare God’s glory. The skies bear witness to His immensity, beauty, and might. All the works of God’s hand, throughout all creation, testify to His splendor, goodness, righteousness, wisdom, power, and love (Ps. 145.5-9). We are surrounded by, immersed in, swaddled with, and even refractive of the glory of the eternal, triune God, everywhere and at all times.

This is only what we would expect, since the world and everything in it is made by God, belongs to God, is upheld in whole and part by God, and exists in God (Ps. 24.1; Heb. 1.3; Acts 17.27, 28). Indeed, God’s great desire is not only that He should proclaim His glory in everything He has made, but that the knowledge of that glory should cover the earth as the water covers the sea.

Yet here is where we encounter what might be called the “glory gap.” The glory of God is being revealed on every hand, by creatures great and small; yet, as is abundantly clear, that glory is not being acknowledged by people nor responded to as we might expect. It is even the case that human beings are seeking to rob God of His glory by taking credit themselves for all His many good and perfect gifts.

Can anything be done to fill this glory gap and to focus the people around us on the greatness, goodness, and glory of God?

A world charged with grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins captured this situation eloquently in his poem, “God’s Grandeur.” In the first part he echoes the teaching of Scripture about the ubiquity of God’s glory. Then he explains that human beings, distracted by their pursuits and labors, have lost sight of that glory and are corrupting the earth by their ways. Finally, Hopkins returns to the theme of creation’s glory, and the determination of God, by His Spirit, to bring that glory to light again, day after day after day. Here’s the poem:

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
   It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
   It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
   And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
   And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell; the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went,
   Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
   World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

God never gives up on making His glory known. He ever renews His creation with His presence, power, and goodness, ever beckoning men to “reck his rod” – to acknowledge His presence and rule.

Docents of glory
Hopkins has framed a challenge for us: How can we bring the knowledge of God to light in a world where people are distracted by idols and uninclined to acknowledge or worship Him? This is precisely where we come in. Like docents in an art museum, who point out and explain the details and beauty of the exhibits, believers, called to glorify God in all things (1 Cor. 10.31), are to be docents of the glory of God to a world numbed to His existence and blind to His presence.

But we need help in fulfilling this calling – help in how to see the glory of God ourselves, and help in how to make known God’s glory to the people around us. Here is where Gerard Manley Hopkins can lend a hand. In this series we’ll look to Hopkins and discover how, by meditating on his poetry, we can learn to see that “dearest freshness deep down things” and to dwell in the warmth of God’s brooding Spirit, so that we are able to discern and discover His glory, and to make it known day after day after day.

For reflection
1.  Can you think of a time when you experienced the glory of God in the creation around you? Reflect on that experience. What did you feel? What did you learn?

2.  In what particular aspects of creation – or of culture – might we expect to be able to discern the glory of God

3.  Can we expect to discern the grandeur and glory of God in creation if we do not learn to know Him in His glory in His Word?

Next steps: Talk with a Christian friend about this idea of being “docents of glory.” What does that require of us? Can we really expect to help others experience the knowledge of God’s glory? How can we prepare for this?

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.