A Testament of Devotion

Over the last several days, I've been re-reading A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly. It has been a few years since I read it the first time, so it's been interesting to note the different things that have struck me this time. Still, though, this book will remain as one of my favorites of all time. It's beautifully written from a passionate and humble soul, completely devoted to God.

In the fourth of the five essays, Kelly speaks of the The Eternal Now (emphasis mine):

...time spreads itself out like a ribbon, stretching away from the now into the past, and forward from the now into the future, at the far end of which stands the New Jerusalem. In this ribbon of time we live, anxiously surveying the past in order to learn how to manage the most important part of the ribbon, the future. The now is merely an incidental dividing point, unstable, non-important, except as by its unstaying migration we move ahead into the richer meadows and the greener pastures of the future. This, I fear, is the all-too-familiar world of all too many religious men and women, when a deeper and a richer experience is possible.

He then writes about how God, the Divine Presence, "steals upon us," making all things new, and opens up a completely new dimension of life:

In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere nodal point between the past and the future. It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself. No longer is the ribbon spread out with equal vividness before one, for the past matters less and the future matters less, for the Now contains all that is needed for the absolute satisfaction of our deepest cravings. Between the relinquished past and the untrodden future stands this holy Now, whose bulk has swelled to cosmic size, for within the Now is the dwelling place of God Himself. In the Now, we are at home at last.

Oh to be able to live every moment like this! To be able to feel the presence of God in all places in all times, to be at home with God in His dwelling place, this moment.