God’s Order

—for Alton

On the day that you said,
I belong wherever I am,

basing your claim on
African logic, I
am because we are,
I vowed a solemn vow—

that starting that day
I, too, would gain
such singular confidence,

yet I misjudged how
global that task might become.

You, Alton, don’t haply know
God’s perfect order,

so I hope you’ll
admit you knew all along:
Who drinks deep from the well
drinks deep from the well—

in the well that was made by
I AM.

first published In TimBookTu

The Sacredness of God’s Handiwork by Henri Nouwen

How do we live in creation? Do we relate to it as a place full of “things” we can use for whatever need we want to fulfill and whatever goal we wish to accomplish? Or do we see creation first of all as a sacramental reality, a sacred space where God reveals to us the immense beauty of the Divine?

As long as we only use creation, we cannot recognise its sacredness because we are approaching it as if we are its owners. But when we relate to all that surrounds us as created by the same God who created us and as the place where God appears to us and calls us to worship and adoration, then we are able to recognise the sacred quality of all God’s handiwork.