Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

Truth is truth wherever it is found,
In light-struck windowed hands of opal glass,
In pebbles left in homage on a grave,
In fingers shelling mounds of lady peas,
In radiance that roosts inside the soul,
In paint, in words, in whirling steps, in steel,

In “rings of fire” as infant heads are crowned,
In my, in your last breath the day we pass,
In clerestory beams that pierce a nave,
In water-gilding’s gold, in mystic keys,
In fire’s vermilion in the glory hole,
In fish that gasp at air inside a creel.

In harrowed earth, in streams, in adze and wood
A beauty lives: ignored, misunderstood. 

—Marly Youmans

Image by Carl Gudarian via Creative Commons. Image cropped. 

Dear Reader,

We launched the First Things 2023 Year-End Campaign to keep articles like the one you just read free of charge to everyone.

Measured in dollars and cents, this doesn't make sense. But consider who is able to read First Things: pastors and priests, college students and professors, young professionals and families. Last year, we had more than three million unique readers on firstthings.com.

Informing and inspiring these people is why First Things doesn't only think in terms of dollars and cents. And it's why we urgently need your year-end support.

Will you give today?

Make My Gift