Christian Living
Larry Lilly's Letter Friday January 26, 2007
I love to use the modern miracle of the Internet for research and I suppose I will be eternally grateful to Al Gore for his invention. I came across today's quote by Edward Bulwer while searching for another quote by him concerning Caterpillars, Butterflies and Death, though I never did find the publication cite. Bulwer used the phrase "Bridge of Sighs" and this set me to wondering, so I share with you some info from Wikipedia:
"The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is one of many bridges in Venice built in the 16th century. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells."
As you know from reading my daily letters I major on encouraging those who hurt, and I try to do this through understanding God's hand in our pain. Bulwer wrote an interesting statement that I find intriguing.
"Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone."
A friend asked the other day, "Larry, what do you miss most now that you are old?" This young …. Never read Carnegie. I responded very quickly, "I miss my mind, and I said it with a sigh." And certainly I miss my athletic prowess which I seem to remember as better each passing year. By the time I reach seventy I will recall that I was faster than Jesse Owens, and scored more touchdowns than O.J. Peyton Manning could have never made the team in my day. Such is life.
The statement by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is helpful in that it points out the truth that we all go through the seasons of life. While the bridge in Venice may have heard many a sigh, we do not have to spend our life 'sighing' over stages of life that are a natural part of living. We must make the best of the current stage, or bridge.
Job touched on this truth about bridges of sighs when he wrote:
Job 23:10 "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.
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