CCCLIII – Gold, God, and Gandalf

In an article about gold recently, I mused on the hypothesis that gold is somehow metaphysically different or special–that God created gold to be special and we human creatures perceive this metaphysical difference. Gold is unique in an ontological sense, not merely in a material sense.

But then–if it is true that God made gold with unique care and a unique purpose, is it not also true that God made iron and copper with the same unique care? So too with Oak and Ash and Acacia, so too with Marble and Granite and Basalt, so too with Apples, Mangos, and Cashews. Far from diminishing the value of Gold by suggesting that everything else was made with the same care and attention, it elevates the world we live in to something mystical and magical. It has become something of a cliche because we don’t have a good context for it, but we were all made with this same unique care and attention.

This calls to mind another of Wood’s posts about strange happenings in the Old Testament. But also, there are no less strange things going on with the saints. The bottom line is that the world we live in is magical.

To be honest, I used Gandalf in the title instead of the word “magic” because I had an alliteration thing going, but now that he’s there, let’s use him. Gandalf was, in the Lord of the Rings, something like an Angel–a wizard, sent by God, to fulfill a specific purpose and do certain things. In a manner of speaking, we are all created by God with this same unique intention. Why else would God give us such a variety of skills and talents; our tapestry of personalities; such a thing as humor? These things are all unique and beautiful. “But Scoot, you have called it ‘magic’ more than once without really explaining what that means?”

When I say we live in a magical world, it means that we live in a miraculous world. That God is intervening at every moment in every minutiae, and some saints get to walk on water or bilocate, some ancient priests got to prophesy using lost artefacts. We witness a miracle every Sunday in the consecration, we experience miraculous healing every time we go to Confession. I have myself, personally, experienced miraculous healing of certain varieties, and I am 100% confident every single one of you reading this have your own personal stories of miraculous and wondrous experiences by the grace of God.

This is what it means to see God everywhere. Not to look at a boulder and think “That is a nice boulder.” But to look at that boulder and see it as connected to everything else, part of a scene which God miraculously contrived over millenia to appear with you in it; for the air you breathe to be the miraculous breathe of life and not mere chemical processes. This is magic because, as Jesus told us, if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains or walk on water. We don’t need so much faith as a mustard seed to appreciate that God miraculously contrived everything we see, hear, and experience, and to see it as the miracle that it is.

God is humble–He doesn’t sound trumpets every time He moves in the world. He moves in little ways, in each of us, every day. It takes mere belief to see it, it takes love to see it as magic.

AMDG