Summer & Creation: Take Time to Enjoy Them

Recently I have had occasion to look deeply into the meaning of the Byzantine icon depicting the Creation.

Adam is confronted with the myriad glories of God’s limitless imagination; as the first human, Adam is tasked with naming and ordering the enormous output of the divine utterances.

Through our descent from Adam, the same task falls to every human being on the planet. To whatever extent we are able, we too must delve into the universe and order, define, know and name those things which come into our orbits.

During the school year, a student’s orbit is likely to revolve around Language, History and formal Theology. These things are important; God did, after all, at some point say ”Algebra” and there the pesky thing was!

But God has also said ‘hiking” and “sunrise” and “butterfly” and so many other things which so badly need to be investigated. Certainly truth derived from Scripture and Catechism is essential knowledge, but a practical study of the world as spoken by God feeds the soul in a different sort of way, one which leads to greater health of soul, mind and body.

Looking at a certain creature with the question, “Why did God say mockingbird?” opens the human heart to a whole new way of appreciating the Lord’s works and can only lead to a greater love for the God Who made so many wonderful things for us to enjoy.

No one has yet attempted a comprehensive theology of the duck-billed platypus, but such a work is possible; God meant something by saying it, and we can learn something of the Creator by a close study of even His most outlandish ideas!