It’s momentary. A brief, but time stopping moment in your daily flow through life. An opportunity given without our knowing how it happened, a glimpse of what we all long for. Something more real than our lives seem to be.
Perhaps, reader you are a particular type of artist that is focused on your art. All of us are ‘artists’ in some way because art is a longing for the real reason we are here. The big longing. Why am I here and how am I here?
One of the authors that Jack knows of, has had that reality vision is George MacDonald. A book he wrote, ‘At the the back of the North Wind’ has a sentence that explains the path to the connection to the author of all beauty. All Art. The reaching out to us by this artist of all that was, all that is and all that will be, MacDonald’s story says: “Why are you closing My window? There is no window here! I did not say, a window. I said My window”1.
A reach, a willingness to reveal ourselves. That is the the hardest and most rewarding decision we ever make in our lives. His window can only be opened from the inside because that is where the latch is.
You may certainly ask at this point; how is this done? It sounds pretty swell but is it really? How hard is ‘the hardest thing?’ That is another hard thing for Jack to explain because his fear of not being understood.
There are groups of people that we find ourselves in now and then, sometimes our decision is to be there with them. It immediately makes Jack a bit wary because he has a tendency to open his window to his heart as a way to show it can be done. Awkward and fulfilling at times. That is the reason this column is written for you to read. Jack hides behind his nickname because revealing his heart to strangers is difficult. He says things are written this way to protect the guilty. An unexpected shout of judgment from one of the hidden Sanhedrin can be unpleasant when truth is spoken by Jack. He was shouted out of a room when he revealed his stalking a rapist decades ago with a nine millimeter hidden at his back. “Murderer!” was shouted several times and could not be quelled or explained as this was an open window to Jack’s heart. A teaching and revealing moment was unheard.
When Jack is speaking to Greta, his wife, the windows to her heart seem to be always open. Jack has to work quickly on his window latch to be of use to her. He’s learning. A bit of anointing oil applied earlier to the latch helps a lot. That oil is hard but good work to obtain and the pun is: ‘ It is always Three in One’ oil. Prayer.
You can always tell when someone has an open heart. Believe it or not, it’s your choice to look and see. Once you have been with Jesus, the master carpenter that has made those windows in there. The ability to touch that heart is yours. It’s a great gift and is offered to one and all, even me, the broken story teller.
‘No body knows the trouble I’ve seen, no body knows my sorrow’ Old blues song by Louis Armstrong.
He knew the deal. No body knows the trouble you’ve seen, no body. There is a man, alive today and willing to listen to your trouble. He will tell you things about that trouble. Things made just for you to do. Often, for Jack, things he doesn’t want to do. However, that open window blows in a refreshing breeze and those things Jesus tells Jack to do or say become refreshing and right. It’s a decision for us all. Open His window which He alone has built into your heart or not. Always our choice from the very beginning of the world. Choose love, really, it is the only choice we have to make, have always had to make. It’s pretty good. Jack
1. George MacDonald ‘At the back of the North Wind’ 1871 isbn 0 85421 753 3
Jack gators grace notes 