Tag: creation

An Appreciative Audience

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“We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”
Annie Dillard

Creation is in desperate need of an appreciative audience.  Beyond polite applause and positive reviews, it deserves a devoted following with reverential bowed heads and bended knees, not missing even one tiny detail of its expanse and grandeur.

Yet, instead of adopting an attitude of submission and gratitude for the small part we play, our modern culture claims every one of us has a hidden leader inside needing to be spawned and molded by strength-based leadership training initiatives. The ultimate fulfillment of our destiny is to learn to take charge, be empowered, overcome weaknesses, assert needs, demand to be seen and heard and followed.

No.

Our destiny is noticing, hearing, appreciating, witnessing, sacrificing, obeying.

Our fulfillment is in worshipful followership.

Otherwise, we will forget
we came from dust
and to dust we must return.

As If There Were Only One

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photo by Josh Scholten

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love.
Saint Augustine

When I am one of billions
there can be nothing special
to attract attention
or affection

When I blend into the background
among so many others
indistinct and plain,
common as grains of sand

There is nothing to hold me up
as rare, unique,
or exceptional,
worthy of extra effort.

Yet it is not about my worth,
my work, my words;
it is about His infinite capacity
to love anything formed

by the touch of His vast hand,
the contraction of His immense heart,
the boundlessness of His breath reaching me
as if
as if
as if
I were the only one.

Lenten Reflection–No Wonder

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Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Augustine

photo by Josh Scholten

photo by Josh Scholten

photo by Josh Scholten

photo by Josh Scholten

The natural wonders are called that for a reason–we are awed and diminished by them. They rightfully deserve our reverence and respect.

So why does the image of God Himself not call us to wonder? Each cell, each organ, each movement, each thought, each breath a miracle of creation far beyond the wonders of the mountains, the heavens and the seas. Yet every day we throw these away as inconvenient, ill-timed, and unvalued.

We were created to look like Him. And He came among us to be with us, walk with us, weep with us, love us, and save our rebellious ungrateful hides.

No wonder we’re such a mess, in need of salvage. No wonder at all.