Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

• 1 Corinthians 13:11-12

“Say it’s only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

Yes, it’s only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

Without your love
It’s a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It’s a melody played in a penny arcade

It’s a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

Say, it’s only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

Yes, it’s only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

Without your love
It’s a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It’s a melody played in a penny arcade

It’s a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me

It’s phony, it’s plain to see
How happy I would be
If you believed in me.”

• Yip Harburg and Billy Rose, Only a Paper Moon

“Think of yourself just as a seed, waiting patiently in the earth — waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time — up into the Real world, the Real waking. I suppose that all our present life, looked back on from there, will seem but a drowsy half-waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming. It is nearer now than when I began this letter.”

• C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

I do not know what to think of this song.  God would not tell us that this is a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea.  He knows the reality of this world, but, through Paul, He let’s us know that whatever you think you have seen, it will seem like a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea.  It will seem like a canvas sky hanging over a muslin tree.

I think back to my youth and the performances that we had, standing in front of paper moons and canvas skies.  We knew it was fake.  Our parents in the audience knew it was fake.  But our performance was genuine and the applause from the audience had nothing to do with whether we had done a good job or not, only that “Hey, there’s my kid up there, doing his best.”

Okay, I would never hear that from my mother, but that’s a different subject for a different day.

But then, there are the lines about “without your love.”  Could this be a conversation between us and God?

God is telling us that this is not the real world.  As C.S. Lewis says above, we will one day awaken to find ourselves in a real world, sometimes called “Heaven”, sometimes called “Paradise.”  But as Paul says, “For now, we can only dimly see as if seeing a dim reflection in a mirror.”

And then God says that it would not be make believe if we believed in Him.  Not all will enter the gates of Heaven.  We must believe and trust God in this life to see the real life that happens next.

Yes, maybe our profession of that belief and trust is saying that without God’s love, this is just a honky tonk parade.  Without God’s love, this is just a melody played at a penny arcade.  Note:  I think arcades cost more than a penny these days.

The song fits, but you need to know who sings each line.  And you need some context.

Here is Frank Sinatra singing Only a Paper Moon.  Have I ever featured Old Blue Eyes?

I had other songs in the queue, but this one was asking to be bumped up in the line.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.