Truth and the Big Cover-Up

On Saturday a couple of inches of snow fell. Last night we had a little more. This is our back garden this morning. The snow’s covering everything – trees, shrubs, grass, flowers, weeds… It’s a big cover-up.

For some the snow is beautiful; they’ve been out taking photographs. For some it’s fun; families have been playing in it. For some it’s inconvenient; snow has to be scraped from car windscreens, journeys take longer. For some it’s dangerous; the cold affects the health of the vulnerable, conditions underfoot cause the unsteady to fall, ice on the roads result in accidents.

I read this morning of Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarah. There’s a famine in their country so they go to Egypt for food. Abraham’s scared that if Pharoah realises that Sarah’s his wife then Pharoah will kill him and take Sarah – so he lies and says that she’s his sister. Abraham’s lie is a big cover-up – that gets him into trouble.

We’re used to the truth being covered up – by politicians, by advertisers, in our communities… a lie can be seen as beautiful… or a bit of fun… or an inconvenience… or it’s just plain dangerous.

I’m reading Patti Callhan’s ‘Once Upon a Wardrobe’. It’s 1950. Megs is at Oxford University studying maths and physics. Her sick younger brother, George, who’s read ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe many times longs to know the truth: Is Narnia is real or fiction? He persuades Megs to ask C.S. Lewis, who’s a professor at Oxford.

Megs meets with Lewis on a number of occasions. Rather than giving her a direct answer he tells her stories. Megs discovers that with maths and science she can explore facts and truth; Lewis explains and demonstrates that through stories and the imagination we can gain a deeper understanding.

This morning, looking out at ‘the big-cover up’ of snow I’m musing on truth that’s covered up, truth that’s exposed and known, and truth that’s understood in a deeper way.