Above is the second picture for Express Yourself # 34. This building certainly has a grand desiign. In 1970, something I heard on the news changed my life; it got me thinking about the grand design of this universe.

 

 


Into the Light, by Harry Kottler, 2006,
18”x24”, acrylic and collage on clayboard

 

 


The Grand Design

 

 

by Harry Kottler

As a child, my sister perished

And I had two friends who died, too.

The Lord Divine I had cherished.

Now I doubted He was true.

 

In my twenties, my doubt doubled

Midst America’s political strife.

My heart was sick, and my mind was troubled.

I longed to know how to live my life.

 

Then I heard on the television

People moaning about the environment.

They said pollution was unnatural.

They said the world was being rent.

 

I thought about the word unnatural.

What could be unnatural about human deeds?

Surely man is part of nature

Even when he plants bad seeds.

 

That idea turned on a light bulb.

My mind lit up with consciousness.

Either there is a grand design

Or all designs must be dismissed.

 

Suddenly, I knew the world is perfect.

If it’s not perfect, how can there be

Any beauty or any virtue

Or any trace of sanity?

 

A grand design must be quite perfect

Or else there is no plan at all.

Miraculously, unity now I worshiped

As I broke through a mental wall.

 

That wall had said, “The world has trouble.”

That wall had said, “Oh, woe is me.”

Now it began to turn to rubble

As I reached for eternity.

 

There is a design behind each story.

There is a design behind the Whole.

Find the light that leads to glory.

Find the light which is your soul.

 

Dismiss the thought, “I’ve got these problems.”

Nurture the thought, “My life is fine.”

In a cloth, each thread is cotton.

In the Whole, each soul’s divine.

 

In a cloth, each stitch is perfect.

In a structure, each beam is right.

In the Whole, we each can nurture

Clarity and true insight.

 

The grand design is all around us,

And we’re of the grand design as well.

To know this surely will astound us.

Hear the ringing of God’s bell!

 

I was lost, and then I found God.

One great thought steered me to His feet.

Now this bard sends you a message:

The Whole is completely neatly sweet.

 

http://harryandhelen.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/09/the-grand-design.htm