If twenty million years ago
the butterfly flew in a different
direction do you think
we would have met, maybe
we wouldn’t have even been
people, maybe we wouldn’t
have even been us, you know,
maybe you would have
been a tortoise and I would
be a raspberry,
maybe we would both be plants
on opposite sides of the same
coral reef, so that we could
have been connected without
ever having met,
maybe I would be an oak cut
down to be the home that held
you, maybe I would have never
been, maybe the butterfly’s wings
would have blown the seed
into the river
and away from the soil
which otherwise would have
become a bush of blueberries
which otherwise would have
been eaten by a squirrel or
some other prehistoric rodent
which otherwise would have died
in a field of milkweeds
which otherwise would have
been carried by the wind
to another place
which otherwise might have
gotten caught in the feathers
of the bird which otherwise
might have flown to the other
side of the sea I could go on
but what I mean to say
is that it would have been
such a tragedy
if something happened
that would have prevented me
from meeting you
like a butterfly
who didn’t realize it was flying
in the wrong direction.
~Clint Smith “Chaos Theory” from Counting Descent

Divinity is not playful.
The universe was not made in jest
but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.
By a power that is unfathomably secret,
and holy,
and fleet.
There is nothing to be done about it,
but ignore it,
or see.
~Annie Dillard from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

We weren’t conceived by random happenstance,
we are here because we were earnestly needed and wanted,
by a power and divinity beyond comprehension
with a capacity for love and compassion
beyond anything in our earthly experience.

He knows his intention and plan for us. He brought us together for a reason.

We aren’t a cosmic joke controlled by the random events.
We aren’t pawns in the universe’s chess game.
We may think what we say or do ultimately doesn’t matter a hill of beans
in the scheme of things, but we are created to clearly see God for who He is,
and in whose image He made us.

It is tragedy to ignore our Creator;
we have no excuses.
It is time to open our eyes, fixing them on the mystery we share,
and see it as sacred.