Tuesday, December 11, 2012

An Experience With Wheat

My wife and I were visiting the Chicago Museum of Natural History. Very few people were there yet. Some sections we had to ourselves. She found items of her interest, but I sought other things. We agreed to part for awhile. I wandered into a section on grains.

What drew me I will never know, but I stood before a glass case which displayed a map with a spray of wheat on it. It illustrated early discoveries--how many people of the world use wheat, and its varieties.

Nothing remarkable in this, I suppose. But what happened to me was remarkable. I had never had such a feeling before, nor have I in the many years since. I forgot myself. I thought of how many peoples' history lay before me. I thought, or felt, a tide of history. I suppose it was a return to basics that I experienced. It was not really thinking, but feeling.

How easy and natural to be drawn in by the world, to forget about what really matters. I wonder who made the display that pulled me in so powerfully? Was it just a part of their job, a matter of routine, and then on to other things? It changed me for life. I got the message--stay in touch the basics of life. If a child had made such a display for school, they deserved an A+.

1 comment:

  1. Was it the world or something of it that drew you in, or the pure fascination with something else God had so masterfully created for our use while here ? The natural world never ceases to amaze me, because to me it is proof of His design and of His love for us.

    ReplyDelete