One World Is Immaterial

Photo by Kevin Hartnett

One world is immaterial;

One such, that human eye can see.

Indeed the more ethereal

Directs the latter’s destiny.

-- K. Hartnett, September 2002

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

The Moon in Phases - Seen and Unseen

Our celestial companion, the Moon, appears to us differently each night of the month.  This is because as it circles the Earth, we see it from different angles with respect to the Sun.  When it is opposite the Sun, it appears full, for we see its fully illuminated face.  At new moon, when it lies in the same direction as the Sun, it is invisible-  due both to the brightness of the daylight sky, and to the fact that we are looking toward its non-illuminated face.  At first quarter and last quarter, when it is respectively one quarter and three quarters of its way around the Earth (as measured from new moon) we see a half-illuminated circle.  Things in life can look one way, but be another in reality.  The scriptures speak authoritatively about both seen and unseen beings, worlds and forces.  We do well to study both the material and immaterial aspects of existence.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible…and in Him all things hold together. (Colossians. 1:16-17)

In this little poem I play with the idea that just as you can normally see part of the Moon but another part- though very real- is black and invisible, so too there are whole worlds that we see, and those that we do not.  Indeed astronomical detectors that are designed to respond to certain wavelengths of light but not to others also teach us that real energies exist that our five senses cannot detect.  The spiritual, or immaterial world is every bit as real as the one we detect with our eyes and ears, but happens to be invisible to them.