Behind

"I saw an old man like a child,
His blue eyes bright, his white hair wild,
Who turned for ever, and might not stop,
Round and round like an urchin's top.

"Fool," I cried, "while you spin around,
"Others grow wise, are praised, are crowned,"
Ever the same round road he trod,
"This is better: I seek for God,"

"We see the whole world, left and right,
"Yet at the blind back hides from sight
"The unseen Master that drives us forth
"To East and West, to South and North.

"Over my shoulder for eighty years
I have looked for the gleam of the sphere of spheres,"
"In all your turning, what have you found?"
"At least, I know why the world goes round."

(GKC late 1890's)

Many's the time I've felt as this old man, washing dishes or folding laundry over and over again, not able to see for a moment that it is my path to heaven. Over and over again, I correct the grammar, take out the garbage, weed the garden. And so too, over and over again, I kiss my spouse and children, make meals that satisfy, read out loud from a Nancy Drew.

What is the "gleam of the sphere of spheres"?