Since Terri and I started streaming “Bad Monkey” on Apple TV, I’ve been listening to a lot of Tom Petty music because the show’s soundtrack features a ton of cover songs of his music recorded by a variety of artists. And, besides, I love Tom Petty’s music.
As Christians, we tend not to give secular things much credence when it comes to spiritual matters. We tend to think God is limited to the sacred spaces of our man-made church buildings. This is a mistake.
The goodness of God permeates everything everywhere.
But, as I learned tonight while attending the Painter, Prophets, and Poets conference in Oklahoma City, a lot of ancient creatives spoke with a flair of Heaven.
Poet-Priest Malcolm Guite made that clear in his oral treatise of a renowned Shakespeare poem, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
No one typically thinks of Shakespeare as spiritual giant. At least, I haven’t. He’s no C.S. Lewis after all.
“If we believe Jesus made everything then the Cosmos is His love poem.”
Malcolm Guite
But Guite, verse by verse, stanza by stanza, masterfully revealed the connection between a passage from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Nights Dream” to Chapter 1 of the Gospel John.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5 NIV
Guite, a delightful soul who looks like he just stepped out of one of Tolkien’s storied fables, made a strong case to his audience of 300+ that the Great Bard must have been meditating on the words of John 1 as he penned the words to Act V, Scene 1, lines 1-27 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Where can we find God in a world that far too often can seem dark and desolate?
Everywhere around us in everything there is. The goodness of God can be found, my friends, if we will just bother to look forward it.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John. 1:14 NIV
Until my next post…
God is good. All the time.
No matter what.
Know you are loved.
Praying for you. Praying for America.
Praying for all the people impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™
#JesusStrong
The Devotional Guy™ 
just resent the original email which, hopefully, you’ll receive this time?
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Will do. I’ll resend it this morning when I switch on my computer.
He told me he was travelling to meet up with you while you were near by.
I love it when God’s children get to meet in person 😊
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Andy B—I did not get one from you so please email it again. It was great meeting up with David in person.
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hey rainer
did you get my guest blog post a while back? i emailed it quite a while ago, but wondered if it had gone to your spam as I didn’t get a reply.
hope all is well and loved the photo of your and our friend David Duncan 😊
Andy B
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Yes to all the above prayer needs!
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