It’s funny how a £20 note looks so big when you take it to Feast, but so small when you take it to the shops. It’s funny how big an hour looks at a meeting and hove small 60 minutes are when spent playing golf or fishing. It’s funny how long a couple of hours spent at a deepening is, but how short they are when watching a film. It’s funny how we get thrilled when a football game goes into overtime, but we complain when our Assembly meeting is longer than usual. It’s funny how laborious it is to read the Writings twice a day and how easy it is to read 300 pages of a best-selling novel. It’s funny how we believe what newspapers say, but can wonder about that what Bahá'u'lláh says is the best for us. It’s funny how we cannot fit a Fireside into our schedulers, but we can ‘pencil in'’ other events at a moment's notice. It’s funny how reading 500 words of an e-mail is a breeze, but reading 5 verses of Bahá'u'lláh is so hard. It’s funny how most of our prayers last a few minutes, but phone conversations with a friend can spill over an hour. It’s funny how much difficulty some have learning a simple Hidden Word well enough to tell others, but how easy it is for the same people to remember a lengthy joke. It’s funny how we are so quick to take direction from a total stranger when we are lost, but are hesitant to take God's direction. It’s funny how people are so consumed with what others think about them rather than what God knows about them.
Think about it, pray about it, make it right.
Anonymous
Note: as this episode is about the interaction between Moses and God I have, to avoid confusion, used the lower case “he” for Moses.
The Hand of the Cause George Townshend wrote the introduction to “God Passes By”, with its moving opening:
“Here is a history of our time written on an unfamiliar theme—a history filled with love and happiness and vision and strength, telling of triumphs gained and triumphs yet to come; and whatever it holds of darkest tragedy it leaves mankind at its close not facing an inhospitable future but marching out from the shadows on a high road of inevitable destiny towards the opened gates of the Promised City of Eternal Peace.”
But it was also George Townshend who suggested the title “God Passes By” for Shoghi Effendi’s monumental history of the first century of the new Revelation (originally it was going to be called “Idylls of the Immortals”). Have you ever wondered about the title? It indicates a contact between the Divine and His creation—but also appears to have a deeper layer of meaning. As you might expect from one who had trained and served as a clergyman Canon Townshend seems to have been using a Biblical reference of great relevance.
There is an incident in the Book of Exodus (chapter 33) in which Moses asks God for an indication that He will be with him and his followers. He asks God to show His Glory, and God refuses, saying that none can bear this (“Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live”). However He does offer Moses a glimpse of the Divine Glory, putting him in a safe place, protecting him with the Divine hand, and allowing him a mere glimpse as He passes by (the phrase is used). And that is enough.
This seems to me to be a significant reference. Even in the events of the Bábí Revelation, in the Heroic Age of our faith and the early part of the Formative Age, we are gaining a mere glimpse of God’s power and majesty. A sobering thought.
ISP
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