Lord.
What a wonderful time You must have had with creation.
In Your mind’s eye, You saw:
fiercely blazing white dwarfs
friendly yellow suns
cool and ruddy giants
enigmatic black holes
curtains of gold and violet, green and blue and red.
Myriad upon myriad of stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies; and each with a name.
And the morning stars sang together.
In Your mind’s eye, You saw:
artery and vein
liver and lung
joint and sinew
muscle and skin
feathers – rachis and barb
beak and claw
And when the form hovered before You, perfect and complete, You thought color:
shimmering emerald
glistening gold
ruby red
And then You spoke, “Be!”
For each and every creature, atom by atom, cell by cell, You thought structure and form, texture and color and You spoke, “Be!” until the very sphere was filled with life.
Yet, unlike the stars, none were named.
Almost finished, You thought one more creature. A creature, as it were, in a plain brown wrapper. Not very large. Not very strong. Colored by the clay from which You molded him. Not much to look at, though clean of limb and regular of feature. But, Oh! What secrets You hid inside him to be revealed in ages to come:
hazel eyes and skylit blue
shining brown, verdant green and sparkling ebony;
tawny skin and deepest brown
pinkly pale, ruddy hued, and golden;
silken black hair and flaxen tresses
copper curls, wiry jet, and brown and silver.
And this one, unadorned, naked creature You also gave a name – Your own. Into this, Your crowning achievement, You breathed the breath of Your life and spoke, “Be!”
To this one, to this man, You imparted Your joy. You shared Your sovereignty, for to this one You brought the others to be named:
hummingbird
elephant
whale and stork
and wonder of wonders – woman.
Like Yourself, You made them. In perfect fellowship You walked with them. And yet they, and yet we, turned from You to follow the foetid vapor of a lie.
Think on it! God created His angels, ministering spirits with hearts of flame, millions upon millions, and named each one. He spoke stars and galaxies, nebulae, planets, quasars and asteroids into being and called each by name. Then He imagined each and every living creature and named none but one. And with that man, that man, our forefather God shared the final act of creation: the naming of everything upon the face of the Earth.
Imagine the Father’s delight as Creator and creature shared the unique properties of each living thing and completed the process of creation. Yet, having experienced this intimacy, Adam turned his back on God for a lie. We gasp. We shake our heads. “Not I. Not I,” we say. But only look at what the Father has shown you, shown me, and look at the lies you, I, have believed, have spoken.
But despair not. For the Uncreated became creature. Infinity enclosed, laid, sealed within the walls of a virgin’s womb. Took on:
flesh
bone
hair
blood
pain
judgment
sin
abandonment
death.
And when the voice that spoke, “Be!” to angel, star, moth, and man was stilled, laid, sealed within the walls of a virgin tomb, earth and sky convulsed and wept.
In the moment of the night, when light was but a hope, Hope itself and Light answered the Father’s call. More brilliant than the sunrise, Uncreated Creator yet created Man, arose and the lie and the father of lies saw defeat. Seraphim and galaxy, ocean wave and mountain peak, hummingbird and humpbacked whale rejoiced.
With the Dawn came promise. Promise of a new creation. Fellowship restored. Life eternal. Listen, O man. Listen, O woman. Listen to the promise. Believe no more, speak no more the lie. Look upon the wonders of creation, beautiful still, though marred. Look to the promise of the world’s, the universe’s redemption and your own. Listen. Look. Believe – and share the Creator’s joy.
Kathy Kexel 