We used to be told in the nursery that if a man were to bore a hole through the centre of the earth and climb continually down and down, there would come a moment at the centre when he would seem to be climbing up and up…
…Whereas to the normal eye the large masonry of its walls or the massive foundations of its watchtowers and its high citadel would make it seem safer and more permanent, the moment it was turned over the very same weight would make it seem more helpless and more in peril. It is but a symbol; but it happens to fit the psychological fact. St. Francis might love his little town as much as before, or more than before; but the nature of the love would be altered even in being increased. He might see and love every tile on the steep roofs or every bird on the battlements; but he would see them all in a new and divine light of eternal danger and dependence. Instead of being merely proud of his strong city because it would not be moved, he would be thankful to God Almighty that it had not be dropped…
-G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi, p. 87
Chesterton sees the humiliation of Francis (that is, his becoming humble before God) as a parable; perhaps even as an allegory. As he went down, down, down he began to go up, up, up. He began to see the world from the perspective of God, or at least from a godly perspective. The great weight of society was no longer reason to boast, but reason for dependence. What if all that weight were dropped and came crashing down?
He really does have the whole world in his hands – in its entirety and in its parts. Should he choose to let go, then all of that mass goes crumbling down. Hence, the heavier we are, the more we should take heed lest we fall. This was the entire point of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. If the Lord does not hold our hand, in due time we shall slip and fall.
We must humble ourselves – go down, down, down – if we are to rise up as satellites and see the world as it actually is. We must become small enough to see the bigness of the world, and therefore the power of the God who upholds it, and his grace not to let it go.
