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Last week\u2019s metaphorical garden walk evoked great response. Among the characteristics of pretty and seemingly fragile flowers are, frequently, a tenacity that can inspire us to persevere against life\u2019s onslaughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most opposite of objects to a fragile flower that we can think of in nature is a mountain. A giant rock, a monolith, an \u201cimmovable object.\u201d Oh, yeah?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was a young teenager I visited Italy. I was interested, who isn\u2019t, in Renaissance art, and I was grateful to be able to visit the legendary marble quarries of Carrara. It is an area where primeval formations during the creation of the world caused a wide swath of mountains to be composed of marble. Marble has unique properties \u2013 it is a rock (metamorphic carbonate), to be sure, hard and heavy, but at the same time malleable and in some conditions, a virginal pure white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michelangelo coveted the marble from Carrara and Seravezza for his planned fa\u00e7ade of San Lorenzo in Florence. Cardinal Giulio de\u2019 Medici and Pope Leo X indulged him, but Michelangelo knew his marble, having sculpted the supernal \u201cDavid\u201d and \u201cPieta\u201d several years earlier. He was so intent on moving that<\/em> marble of Carrara to that<\/em> city of Florence \u2013 hundreds of miles down the Mediterranean coast, thence east into the boot, through Pisa to Florence \u2013 that he put aside painting and sculpting <\/em>and architecture to oversee the \u201cquarrying\u201d of marble and moving gargantuan slabs down the sea and across lands. He became like Leonardo during those many months, inventing rigs and carts and boats and bridges. On the next day, after the engorged wood had, unlikely as it seems, pushed the marble monolith apart ever so slightly, other wedges were tapped in \u2013 a little larger in size, and soaked again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This process was repeated, day after day, until (again with forethought and examination for the planned \u201ccapture\u201d of the marble that was figured to break free) eventually the marble broke free. Making sure the chunks of rock were \u201ccaught,\u201d not to crash down, they were lowered, then to make their serpentine way to Florence. No easy tricks themselves\u2026 but compared to the separating and securing of tons of precious marble from a massive mountain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I made reference to people cracking under pressure. Surely that is a simile if not a metaphor. But the real lesson \u2013 a valuable and quite appropriate lesson to learn \u2013 is similar to that provided by tenacious little flowers! Can you picture what I described in the quarry-process? \u201cMoving mountains\u201d… The power of planning, patience, and persistence… Being content with slow but steady results… Accomplishing a seemingly impossible task\u2026 and using seemingly absurd ideas and tools in order to succeed greatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May I suggest further: as beautiful as those snow-white chucks of a mountain were, they still were only pieces of rock. But in a master\u2019s hand (and in the Master\u2019s Hand) they became stunning fa\u00e7ades of cathedrals; and lifelike statues of Moses and David; and of Mary holding her crucified Son. Living, breathing, miracles can emerge from cold stone. \u201cThe rocks cry out!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, before we forget the mountain itself: We think of Sisyphus, his impossible task being to push an impossible rock up an impossible mountain. We recall Moses smiting the rock. We remember God\u2019s promise that with prayer and in faith we can move the metaphorical mountains that stand in our way. We remember hymns like A Mighty Fortress<\/em> and Rock of Ages<\/em> \u2013 that God is our refuge and strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we remember too the fissures in mighty rocks and mountains. Remember how Michelangelo utilized the cracks<\/em> \u2013 the \u201cclefts\u201d \u2013 that certainly play their own roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we need it, as God assured us in His Word, those rocks can provide refuges too. He provides safe havens when we need protection from the world, even for a spell. Mountainous rocks can provide hiding places from the world\u2019s attacks and storms, where we may regain strength and courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What promises! Move those mountains\u2026 and, when needed, find those safe places where God invites you to pray \u201cHide Thou Me.\u201d Since we shared much here about Michelangelo, I would like to close with lines he wrote toward the end of his life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allora<\/em>. Yes, to get to my point. I was fascinated, as a teenaged tourist, to learn how giant pieces of marble were secured \u2013 separated from the mountains that held them. Dynamite existed at the time, and primitive explosions might have been tried\u2026 but were not. Many workers with sledgehammers? No. Beasts of burden strapped with great ropes affixed to peaks and outcroppings? Not at all.
The giant chunks of marble were instead separated from the mountains by mere modest slivers of wood.
Wedges. It is a property of some stone, especially marble, that it can crack under pressure (hmmm\u2026 like many people do, but that is not my message!). Small cracks were found, or made, in the great marble monoliths, and Michelangelo, studying and planning properly, had narrow wooden wedges tapped into those cracks. Then water was applied to the wood, which expanded slightly from the moisture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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