Thanks for that. I'd never realised there was an upper and a lower mill-stone. The idea of that which is above moving horizontally against that which is below feels kind of frightening. In a sense its like a tearing across the hierarchy. It's like the breaking of the world.
The millstone of God's justice does indeed destroy hierarchy... where that hierarchy is proudly, defiantly raised against heaven, against righteousness. But that's welcome to those who have suffered under tyranny. The meaning of a symbol always depends on where we stand in relation to it.
When life is "on earth as it is in heaven," the turning wheel above us is the majestic round dance of the cosmos, and the ordering clock, fixing times and seasons for life beneath.
Thanks for that. I'd never realised there was an upper and a lower mill-stone. The idea of that which is above moving horizontally against that which is below feels kind of frightening. In a sense its like a tearing across the hierarchy. It's like the breaking of the world.
The millstone of God's justice does indeed destroy hierarchy... where that hierarchy is proudly, defiantly raised against heaven, against righteousness. But that's welcome to those who have suffered under tyranny. The meaning of a symbol always depends on where we stand in relation to it.
(Here's a terrifying short-story illustration: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/09/they-grind-exceeding-small-by-ben-ames-williams/ from 1919.)
When life is "on earth as it is in heaven," the turning wheel above us is the majestic round dance of the cosmos, and the ordering clock, fixing times and seasons for life beneath.