“The morning stars sang together”
by chuckofish
To make suggests making something out of something the way a carpenter makes wooden boxes out of wood. To create suggests making something out of nothing the way an artist makes paintings or poems. It is true that artists, like carpenters, have to use something else—paint, words—but the beauty or meaning they make is different from the material they make it out of. To create is to make something essentially new.
When God created the creation, God made something where before there had been nothing, and as the author of the book of Job puts it, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (38:7) at the sheer and shimmering novelty of the thing. “New every morning is the love / Our wakening and uprising prove” says the hymn. Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you’re seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you’re crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either.
-Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking
The days seem to blend together, but we must be careful that we don’t look at them that way. Each day is a wonderful gift, isn’t it? My days at work are long but pleasant. I am grateful to have the stamina to stay all day. Evenings at home, after changing into my evening loungeware, are warm and comfortable. At the end of the day I am happy to climb into my cozy bed, read for a little while and then sleep through the night.
Sometimes, like this past Tuesday, the day goes against routine. The wee laddie came over after work and stayed with us while Lottiebelle went to her dance class. For awhile he and I picked up sticks in the front yard and gathered gumballs.
This was great fun and the little bud was very proud of his skills. We looked at the daffodils that are coming up and at the forsythia bushes which are budding. Everything is exciting and new when you are with a three year-old. After coming inside, we watched truck videos until daughter #3 came to pick him up.
This weekend I am going to a workshop for lay readers and to a couple of estate sales. I’m going to organize my closet and look at my spring clothes. I’m going to get things ready at home for daughter #2’s arrival next week. (She’s coming into town for a baby shower!)
Have a good weekend!
“What God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about. Everything He gives you to do, you must do as well as ever you can, and that is the best possible preparation for what He may want you to do next. If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what came next.”
―
The painting is by Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, 1950
dual personalities 