Meditation on Psalm 19

If it is so that the heavens tell the glory of God

And the firmament proclaims his handiwork,

That the days discourse and the nights declare what they know

And they do all this without language or speech

Sending their urgent messages through all the earth

And their tidings to the end of the world,

Then what are they saying to us in their speechless speech and wordless words?

What essential thing do they want us to hear?

Perhaps it is this:

At the very moment you and I

Are hunched over desks in cubicles

Solving the problems of our own making

Entombed by concrete and glass,

Breathing in the anxiety we have exhaled

Or combing the brackish water of old arguments with our children or spouse,

Or examining boxes of cereal at the grocery store

In mortal fear of grams of sugar,

There are outside all around us

Ants dancing in the blades of grass

Flowers unfurling their petal-arms for their brief life of joy

Trees sending hidden elevators of sap up to the highest floors of themselves

And back down again to the basement of their roots

Insects gliding on unseen currents of air, buzzing with delight,

Algae coasting atop mountains of ocean surf, laughing, dizzy,

White clouds skidding down the invisible slopes of wind, shouting their exhilaration;

They do all this without language or speech

Sending their urgent message through all the earth,

And here is what they say:

Lay down your life.

Set it down and spend some of your precious time

Spinning until you fall over in the grass

Closing your eyes and smelling each of the flowers in your garden in turn

Hanging by your bent legs from the branch of a tree

Standing at the edge of a precipice and leaning into the up-welling wind,

Swimming underwater like a wide-eyed polliwog,

Digging with your naked hands in the dirt,

Catching rainwater with the open font of your mouth,

Fluttering your hands at aspen leaves flickering in a breeze,

Diving headfirst into the soft hills of new snow;

Do this,

Do all of it,

And then tell me you are still an atheist.

Creation cannot stop talking about God.

Lay down your life,

If only for a time,

and listen.

—S.W. Springer 09-18-18