Genesis Revisited

Every so often, sitting here in my sinfully overstuffed, down-filled easy chair, I turn my thoughts to things philosophic. The catalyst is usually the recognition of some odd paradox that leads me to wonder how we arrived at our current situation.

This morning, for example, is beautifully quiet. Rising before dawn, I witnessed this day's beginnings -- one more daily renewal and reminder of that first Creation. How perfectly good God is to gift us with His story of that First Act, so we can experience again and again the Genesis of our existence in His love. This gift makes us -- Jews and Christians -- so utterly different from the rest of humanity. These others have their religions, their man-made reactions to the traces of God's presence in the world. Struggling in the half-light of their faith, and buoyed by hope, they search for God.

But we have so much more. We have God's own Word. We have His Revelation, His own story told to us just as He wants it told. We have God's search for us. And for us Christians, who accept the entirety of that Revelation, at the center of that story is His greatest gift, the gift of His Son who in an act of mind-boggling humility became like one of His creatures and allowed those same creatures to put Him to death for their sinfulness. Our loving God certainly has a remarkable sense of the ironic.

From the comfort of my easy chair, I observe today's version of this daily renewal, played out within God's creation. I am awed by its beauty, the subtle yet unstoppable movement from darkness to light, from obscurity to clarity. I saw it in the clouds, barely recognizable in the pre-dawn darkness as they underwent the colorful transformation forced on them by the sun, a sun still hidden from me as I gazed upwards from the earth. From my lowly vantage point I could see only its reflections in sky and clouds. Yes, indeed, sky and clouds are blessed to be first to experience each day's arrival, the Genesis renewal that God offers to us as a daily reminder of His infinite goodness. And now, just minutes later, the sun has risen and the clouds have lost all traces of color. Gone too are those patches of darkness that stained their surfaces and distorted their true essence. Now they are as they should be, bleached pure white, cleansed by the risen sun's penetrating rays. Do they send us a message? Can we too be as pure and sinless if only we will turn to the Son?

Yes, the beauty of this and every morning is cause to wonder how we, as humanity, as His beloved creatures, can turn away from God so easily, as if the world is ours and not His. He offers us so many reminders of His goodness and love, and yet the world rejects them all. This is perhaps the greatest paradox. God's presence is so vividly there, right in front of us, observable by the senses He built into the bodies with which He blessed us, and knowable by the minds that separate us from all other creatures of this world. And yet, instead of falling to our knees overwhelmed by His love, we turn our backs on the Creator, echoing the words of him who first said, "I will not serve."

So many people today are inexplicably enamored of the petty, insignificant power wielded by the creature, but fail to comprehend or even recognize the true omnipotence of the Creator. And so we have wars, and political corruption, and abortion, and terrorism, and health care that has nothing to do with health, and the strange, almost surreal, hypocrisy of political correctness.

Odd thoughts this morning...thank God we have a loving God.