The rediscovery of meaning

Abstract

Romans 1: 20

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so men are without excuse.

Job 32:8

But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

Joshua 4:5-7

Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?", tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.

Meaning is revealed in the inmost place of a man. Once that lamp of understanding is lit, it will never be extinguished. It is only our awareness of meaning that dims and fades, lost in a welter of imposing facts. The experience of built form can recall us to an awareness of associated meaning. It is in this renewed awareness that we rediscover meaning.