"If physical objects give you pleasure, praise God for them and return love to their Maker lest, in the things that please you, you displease him. If souls please you, they are being loved in God; for they also are mutable and acquire stability by being established in him...so seize what souls you can to take with you to him, and say to them: 'Him we love; he made these things and is not far distant.' For he did not create and then depart; the things derived from him have their being in him."- St. Augustine
We are worshipers. That is our business. We see, we find, we gather, we declare. We are on the hunt, metal detectors and butterfly nets in hand, gathering up bits of hidden treasure and created glory, to put them together, labeled, organized, on display for the world to see, and to marvel.
Once you sign up for one credit card, it seems like you get offers from every other credit card. It's like the girl in college that not many guys are interested in until she gets a boyfriend. And all those offers come with a mock credit card as if to say, "Look! Here's what our credit card looks like! Put it in your wallet; carry it around with you. You'd rather have our credit card in your wallet, right?" Just for convenience sake, they put in those reply envelopes with the big black letters "BUSINESS REPLY MAIL" boxed in with thick black lines. It's all very official.
I wonder, what if instead of a fake credit card they sent me a caterpillar? One of those caterpillars that is just ready to cocoon; all it needs is a nearby overhanging twig, or lampshade. I have a lamp beside my bed; it's connected to my bedside table, a package deal. The caterpillar could hang out, make laps around the lampshade while I read my book before going to sleep. I'd bring in some leaves for him to munch on as a bedtime snack, before he and I cover up for the night. Of course, his night is a bit longer and more...effective, I would say. If only our nights were so effective...
So after the given amount of time for all the transforming and wiggling that goes on for the caterpillar to become a butterfly, I suppose I'd play around with him a bit, show him to my friends, and take some pictures, us and the butterfly. Then I'd take those pictures and stuff them back in the envelope marked BUSINESS REPLY MAIL, return to sender. Why? 'Cause that's the business I suppose. Maybe he puts the pictures up in his office somewhere, next to the ones of budding trees, advancing glaciers, new families, restored relationships. He keeps sending out more letters with more reply envelopes, every day, every minute...every second?
This whole business of being human worshipers is like one big expedition of "found" art. We see, we find, we gather, we declare. We take from the "raw material" of the created order, as Pastor Keller would say, and put it together for beauty, advancement, and human flourishing. We are mothers shopping for the family dinner; we are archaeologists digging for lost cities; we are businessmen building networks of relational pragmatism; we are children with cups in hand building empires out of sand.
In Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. He gave life to everything that has been made, and his life brought light to everyone. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether the sand that makes a castle or the love that makes a marriage; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, whether it is sand, or love. And He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy...glory.
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