In the beginning...

These simple words from Genesis 1:1 alert us to the transcendent significance of what is to follow. Yet we don't begin to grasp how important this account of God's relationship to the world/the universe until we find these words...

26: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

A political cartoon by Steve Kelly (see Steve Kelly at Creator's Syndicate) on October 19 (to be posted on Halloween) brilliantly captured our current political climate. I'll leave it to my readers to puzzle out its full significance...

I find it extraordinary that, after years of debate, millions of voters still don't know what an assault rifle is. I don't understand why they never bothered to look up the definition, even though there are perfectly good definitions readily available, for example, on the Internet. See, for example, the excellent article on Wikipedia.

This is a meditation on the spiritual and emotional challenges of watching someone you care about as they near death, One of the biggest challenges is the trade-off between easing pain and not hastening death.

There was an old man, named Simon Legree,
whose ill-gotten gains were filthy lucree.
'Tis painful to state
his sorrowful fate
when he stood at the gate before Simon the Pete.

A middle aged man, named Zachaeus,
Encountered the Lord they called Jesus.
He got down from his tree,
and confessed on his knee,
and avoided the fate of Legree, thus.

I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people
to drink. [Exodus 17:6]

This is a reflection on the nature of God, His infinite power, knowledge, understanding, subtlety and love. All of these are ultimately beyond our ability to grasp. Nevertheless, there is much we can learn from meditating on Him.