Creation’s Story

Before the beginning –the beginning of everything – of anything
long before the dinosaurs
and the teaming microbes
before the simplest virus
- before matter itself existed -
- before time and before space
There was – there is – there always will be…GOD:
Being;
Intelligence;
Creativity;
Activity;
that which or whom is Wholly Other:
- GOD -
Spoke, thought, dreamed, and schemed.

And there was light – a brilliant burst
as matter exploded into being
Surging outward at incredible speed
hot and bright.
The cosmos was born.
planets took shape as infernos cooled;
stars glowed
– detonated –
with the light of the primal energy.
And God smiled.
God smiled as the universe sped onward
– away from its genesis
and outward towards its own revelation as spatial existence without boundary.

And in the midst of the light and the heat of the fission and fusion,
the swirling electrons and the darting quarks,
In the midst of the rush of the speed and the roar of the cosmic vacuum
the elements began to long for an ear to hear them,
and an eye to see them -
began to long for a lover's caress and attentions;
Matter cried out for sentience to recognize and fondle it.
And God heard.
God heard and felt matter’s cry.
God kissed creation – breathed passionately upon and throughout it
and matter began organizing itself in new and various ways:
Crystalline structures, permeable membranes, amino acids,
repeatable patterns – appeared in the waters.

And somehow, somewhere, someway – long before history began
Life appeared:
Non-being was mutated.
Being was incarnated into matter.
And geological processes became biological creatures.
And God laughed.
God laughed with delight
to watch, and hear, and smell, and taste and touch as
Viruses reduplicated themselves.
Single cells split in two.
And the two became four.
the four became eight.
and the eight were fruitful and multiplied upon the earth
and within the seas, and throughout the air.
Life established itself, growing exponentially
with the birth of each new generation.
Amoebas and chinchillas, lentils and ladybugs, coral and sparrow, fungus and virus –
Each in its own place and time
and following the appropriate antecedent rhyme.
And God whispered.
God whispered in every cell, in every atom, in every particle and charge,
"I love you."

And the many ears and eyes, noses and tongues - the manifold skins of the universe
strain continually to hear that voice calling out to them
– strain to hear their lover's refrain.
And some there are in every age
who claim to have heard it –
the very voice of God.
And these ones have woven their stories
around and through their experiences.
They are the ones who find in the world, in existence, mystery and passion, joy mixed with pain
It is they who have found the courage and the reason to celebrate
– to celebrate life.
Prophets and poets, sages and teachers, scientists and scholars, philosophers and theologians
People - all of them
attempting to describe what they see and feel and touch and taste.
seeking to express existence through words
to capture the world in bucket…that's full of holes.
Forgetting that being will always escape us
before we can grasp it.
Yet gaining and giving – if only for a fleeting second – a glimpse of Being Itself
– a glimpse of God.
They marvel in wonder at the beauty and intricacy
of the material universe
and in the terrors and triumphs
Of existence.
And God said.

God said, "It is good. It is very, very good."

TTS