Reflection
In the beginning
God gathered God’s self together
to create the universe,
fashioning with goodness the sky
with its galaxies and constellations,
its suns and moons,
its light and darkness.
And there was some fun and mischief along the way
as God messed about with incredible light shows
and sent the planets into orbit
and played around with tides and seasons
and day and night.
And then God created the earth
with its mountains and valleys,
its oceans and streams,
its continents separated by vast seas and deserts,
its forests and ice caps
and plains of fertile land.
And God enjoyed attending to detail
the bumps and the curves,
the flow from one landscape to the next,
the separation of water from land
and earth from sky.
And God loved that beautiful world
and wanted to share it.
So God created animals
for the hills and the plains,
for the sky and the sea,
for above and below the earth,
each with a place and, largely, a purpose.
And then, with a flourish,
involving dust and breath,
God created human beings
who would care for all of creation,
for all that God had made
and who would be co-workers with God
in nurturing and sustaining creation.
God saw that it was good
and delighted in all of creation.
As it was in the beginning, so it is now.
God delights in us.
Desiring nothing more than relationship,
Inviting us to be part of
the divine dance:
the dance of Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
God invites us to be caught up
in the mystery that is God…
Instead, we spend our time
trying to unravel that mystery.
We tie ourselves in knots
instead of enjoying the different kind of knowing
that is offered by God;
we distance ourselves
rather than entering into relationship;
we ponder how we can change the world
when God’s invitation is simply to dance…
In that dance we discover compassion
that moves us to care for creation.
In that dance we discover anger
that fuels us to root out injustice.
And, in that dance
we discover freedom
made up of Love, Joy,
Peace, Patience, Goodness,
Faithfulness, Gentleness,
the fruits of God-control,
the elements of the dance
that sustain the world.
God’s laughter and delight
and tears and compassion
form the rhythm that draws us in
and sends us out
to dance.