"Flame Out, Like Shining From Shook Foil"

Analysis of "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manly Hopkins "THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God." Rom. 1 says, "What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." We can see God in EVERYTHING we see, if we want to see it.  "The world is charged" with God's glory.  We cannot help but look outside and acknowledge in our hearts that there MUST be a creator!  People who believe in evolution are not listening to their HEARTS.  They turn off their hearts and only listen to their minds.  But if we all really hear what our hearts say, they scream that God is GREAT.  God is AMAZING!  There have been many things I have seen in nature that COMPLETELY take my breath away.  And God gave all of this just for US!  That is the most amazing thing.  God is amazing!  HE created the whole universe!  When looking at the stars and the universe how can we NOT conclude that God is grand!  It was once said, "There is not an astronomer that has ever lived that does not believe in God."  They may be scientists, but one cannot deny that there is a creator when you truly understand the complexities of the universe. :)  Did you know if we were any closer to the sun we would burn up, and if we were any further from the sun we would freeze?  We are positioned in the universe exactly where we should be.  And GOD did that.  He put us here!  :)  So praise Him. :) Because God is so amazing, He alone deserves ALL of our praise!  It is ALL ABOUT HIM, and not about us at all.  May we all come to see this more and more. :)  As John the Baptist said, "My He increase and I decrease."  Amen, that is my prayer as well! :)
"It will flame out, like shining from shook foil." If you shake a piece of aluminum foil in the sun it will flame out and shine brilliantly, like nothing you have ever seen shine before!  Creation cannot help but shine brilliantly as well!  It was created to shine.  Think of every time you see a humming bird or a gorgeous sunset!  The world screams that there must be a God.  If we will only listen to it.  If we will only open our eyes to see its brilliance!
"It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed." This analogy refers to the way people used to make olive oil by stepping on the olives.  I think this might be symbolic of Jesus' death.  He was crushed for our sins.  Only in him being crushed could He bring abundant LIFE for us!  Life that oozes out of us!  Life that is FULL.   Luke 6 says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap."  David says in Psalm 23, "My cup runneth over!"  We will have MORE then enough in Christ!  We will be filled to overflowing in HIM.  We "shall not want" for anything; emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally.  Jesus said, "I came that they might have life and have it to the fullest!"  He will fill us to the brim in all aspects of our life, if we let him fill us.  Everlasting life begins in THIS life!  Will you take hold of it?  This analogy is also saying that when you squeeze nature, when you enjoy it for all that it is meant to be enjoyed, God oozes out, because HE is in EVERYTHING.  He made everything!  And he has made everything for us TO BE ENJOYED!  You, at least I, cannot look at a hawk gliding in the sky and not think of God.  I think every time, "God you are SO amazing to make something so majestic!"  "Why do men then now not reck his rod?" This is referring to a "rod" or a "staff."  In the Old Testament Moses used his rod or staff to perform the miracles on Egypt.  Hopkins is saying symbolically how do we as humans not wreck God's power?  We brought sin into the world; we damage God's creation all the time.
"Generations have trod, have trod, have trod." We keep walking all over the earth, killing the grass, polluting the environment.	5
"And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil." Of course these words bring to mind smearing blood on something.  We have in many ways seemed to have killed the earth and smeared its blood everywhere.  We spill oil in the oceans and kill much of God's creation.  We cut down trees all the time and further deplete the oxygen in our air.  We pollute the air with our cars and possibly increase the risk of cancer with all the smog and toxic fumes we release into the atmosphere.
"And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell." Earth used to be innocent; it used to be untouched.  It kind of has the image of a virgin being rapped actually.  The world, when it was created, was pure and lovely and beautiful.  Now the world has essentially been violated by mankind.  The world shares man's smell.  She is no longer pure and untouched.  She is no longer without blemish.  Paul says in Rom. 8, "The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." When we sinned, we brought a curse on the earth as well.  God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground now because of you.  It will produce only thorns and thistles for you."  But one day, we will be liberated and the creation will be liberated as well!  On that day, "When every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!"  Amen :) "The soil
is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod."  We have ripped out most of the earth's trees and used up many of her natural resources.  It reminds me of the book "The Giving Tree."  The man took the tree's apples and sold them and cut down her branches to sell and cut her trunk down to use for a ship until all that was left of her was only a stump.  This book actually makes me cry every time I read it, because the tree she was happy to give whatever she could to the boy.  Whenever the boy took something the book says, "The boy was happy, and the tree was happy."  She was happy that he was happy.  It is the most beautiful picture of agape love!  The giving of love and expecting nothing in return.  The giving of yourself until it hurts.    It reflects God's heart for us tremendously!  He gave TO US all that was dear to Him, His one and only son, so that we might be happy.  Because when WE are happy, HE IS HAPPY! :)  Think about that.  Do you know HOW MUCH God loves you?!  HE loves you more than words can say!  He loves you more than all the people combined in your life have loved you times 100!  His love for you is ferocious, unrelenting!  It is powerful!  It never dies!  I pray that you will see just HOW MUCH He loves you more and more every day! :) Perhaps the book "The Giving Tree" was also meant to represent mother earth, who keeps giving and giving to us as mankind.  She gives until, like the tree being only a stump, her soil is bare.  Until she has nothing left to give. Also our feet cannot "feel" now, "being shod."  Meaning we wear shoes which symbolically represents that our hearts cannot FEEL creation anymore.  Our hearts are hardened, callous.  We have closed ourselves off from feeling anything grand, anything breath taking about God's creation, about anything relating to God.  Our hearts are hardened, like stone. We desensitize ourselves to it's beauty.  We kill our emotions and do not let our hearts comes alive when we SEE mother nature.  We put shoes on our feet like we put walls up in our souls, against God, against living, with reason, logic, science.  We try to put everything in creation in a box.  We take the wonder away from it all.  And we wonder why we are not happy.  We have made ourselves unhappy by not allowing ourselves to enjoy all that God meant for us to enjoy on this earth!  Good things, pure things, holy things.    Imagine taking your shoes off and walking in a meadow of wild flowers; and really FEELING the grass with your bare feet.  Feeling the coolness of the grass.  Smelling the fragrance of nature.  Feeling the warm sun on your skin.  And knowing that God will take care of you.  Knowing how much God loves you!  Opening yourself up to finally SEE nature's amazing beauty!  Seeing it as it was meant to be seen.  Being captivated by the elegance of nature.  But we have killed any love we had of nature.  We have numbed our hearts.
"And for all this, nature is never spent." Hopkins states that, despite mans near rapping of nature, deep down nature still remains.  Though it would seem that she is gone and there is nothing left, Hopkins says nature is not spent.  Though she may seem so on the outside, there is still something very much alive within her.
"There lives the dearest freshness deep down things." "Deep down" inside nature there is still an archaic beauty.  There is still a hint of what she once was.  We see this if we hike deep into a forest and see nature's beauty untouched, un-hindered, free.  We see what the world was supposed to look like, before we damaged it, before we smeared it with our destruction.  We see nature in her natural radiant glory.  We see what Adam and Eve must have seen and taken rapture in.	10
"And though the last lights off the black West went" The sun sets in the west.  Hopkins is describing a sunset.  Many times in poetry night signifies death.  But Hopkins says, though "the last lights off the black West went," though she, nature, seems to have died.....
"Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs." It is not over!  Nature is not killed!  She is still very much still alive!  She is brought to life anew every morning.  Ever notice how birds sing in the morning?  As David says, "Your mercies are new every morning."  Every day is a NEW day.  Hopkins says this is symbolically like a starting over, a rebirth, a second chance.  Perhaps he was saying in this poem, "Can we get it right?  Can we treat nature as she was meant to be treated this time?  Can we cherish her and love her and not use and abuse her?"
"Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings." The Holy Ghost, God, is protecting the world.  God is ultimately in control, as much as we like to THINK we are, we are not.  We cannot outdo God.  No matter how much evil we commit, God can rescue and save anything.  He can make ANYTHING like new!  He can make anything into a NEW CREATION, including YOU. :)  Hopkins says, "over the bent world broods."  We are bent, are we not?  We are so, so crooked.  We are not straight as we were meant to be.  We are OFF, we are BROKEN, we are lost.  We do not know how to treat the earth, each other, and God, as they were all meant to be treated.  It says that he "broods" over us.  To brood means "to show deep unhappiness of thought."  He is looking over us frowning essentially.  Yes, we frustrate God, even though he loves us.  Just as a parent will be frustrated many, many times with their child.  Like the line, "I'll always love you, but I don't like you right now."  lol.  God always loves us, even though some times He may not like us.  :)  He knows we can do better.  He knows with Him IN US we can do better.  So let him regenerate you as He wants to. :) However ,the Holy Ghost is said to have a warm breast, meaning his heart is warm for us.  He longs to take us in his arms and hold us, like a mother would her son.  And he has "bright wings."  He is always radiant, no matter what we do.  God's glory will endure forever!  He sits on His throne in radiance forever!  In Rev. Jesus is described as being like the "sun shining in all it's brilliance!"  John describes him in Rev. 1: "Among the lamp stands was someone like a son of man."  John describes him as "someone like the son of man" because he is in human form.  He has always had a human form.  Even in the Old Testament when it says, "the angel of the Lord appeared," that was the pre-incarnate Jesus.  Whenever anyone "saw" God they were seeing Jesus.  When Jacob wrestled with God, he was wrestling with Jesus.  Interesting isn't it? :)     Jesus was, "Dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest."  Gold represents royalty of course.  "The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow."  White is for purity.  Jesus is, was and forever will be, without blemish and spotless.   "And his eyes were like blazing fire."  His eyes are piercing.  It is said, "The eyes are the window to the soul."  Jesus' soul is incredibly powerful, as he IS God.  "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace."  His feet are strong.  He is grounded.   "And his voice was like the sound of rushing waters."  His voice is powerful!  As powerful as the sound of a water fall.  "In his right hand he held seven stars."  These are supposed to represent the 7 churches.  "And coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword."  This is a depiction of how the Word is described in Hebrews 12, "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword."  And who is The Word?  John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."  This is describing Jesus.  What a powerful truth, and what an amazing mystery!  That essentially means that every time we carry around our Bibles we are carrying Jesus around!  The Bible is not just some other history book, it is alive!  Picture sun shinning out of every page and that is how we are to picture it, I believe.  We are revere it!  That is why it is called, "The HOLY Bible."  Think about it.  It is HOLY, set apart, different, pure, totally different.  "His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance."  This is also how Jesus appeared at the transfiguration to Peter, James and John, the sons of thunder, lol.  Mt. 17 says, "Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light..... 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (haha can you imagine God yelling at you?  That would be pretty scary. Poor Peter lol) 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified."  These disciples got to see Jesus in his full glory!  And John's response this time in Revelation was exactly the same as it was when he saw Jesus in his glory this first time at the transfiguration! He fell on his face! :) "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead."  That was a very common response throughout Scripture when people saw Jesus/ God or heard God/Jesus' voice.  :)  "Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!"  Amen! Jesus shines brilliantly, "like shinning from shook foil," just like his amazing creation!  And though we killed Him, He came to LIFE again and continues to shine, just like his creation does and will forever more!   Did you know we will live on this earth forever?  It will be reborn, just as we will be reborn and have glorified bodies when we die.  It and we will go back to our original state before the fall, and worship and serve God forever!  Amen!  :) Grace and peace be with you! :)