The Oasis - January 1-24-24
Author: Rev. Dan Hollis
January 24, 2024
Imagine that you’re God. You are all that there ever has been. You have no beginning; you’ve just been. Forever. But you’re enough. More than enough, in fact. You’re not alone, not really. You’re the best conversation-partner anyone could have. On top of that, you can create. You can create anything. The very fabric of the Universe is your flesh, which you can mold like clay, or dough.
One day you make a decision, and space-time just happens. Heat, light, sound, expansion… happen. All of a sudden there is motion from something to something. Gravity blooms; electromagnetism, particle interaction, even time and the concept of place explode outward, and you ride the wave. You dance among swirling gases that come together and flow apart, accompanied by the new music of stars being born in awesome spectacle. You weave dark mysteries and bright anchors, reveling in the creation unwinding, stardust birthing planets and asteroids and moons. Comets getting lost and wheeling through space on journeys of endless possibility.
One day you make a decision, and life just happens. Maybe it’s happened before, on other planets in the far-flung corners of the Universe that is you… or maybe it’s the first time you decided to try it out. But you watch, and your body tingles, as things start moving on their own, without you telling them how. Little things that swim and split give way to bigger things that fumble and devour and learn to create with each other.
And you love these little things you’ve created, and that you let create themselves: a beauty unparalleled in all your Creation because they’re a little bit like you. They can do a little bit of what you can do. And because of that, they can understand a little bit about what it’s like to be you. And that’s new. That’s exciting.
Imagine that you’re God, and space and time are a part of you. You exist in all places because all places exist in you. You can see everything that has ever happened and everything that will ever happen and can ever happen all at once.
One day you make a decision, and all that goes away. Suddenly, for you, there is light, and cold, and pain. Painful sounds, blinding brightness, a sharp stinging sensation… and then comfort. Warmth. Softness. Security. Home.
A soothing voice tells you everything is going to be all right. Your eyes—because you have eyes now—adjust to the light, and you see a young woman covered in sweat. A woman who is bigger than you when nothing has ever been bigger than you. The dust of hay tickles your nose—because you have a nose now—and your stomach grumbles. You are surrounded by faces… the faces of people you created. A man with complicated emotions written in the lines of his face. Children with tufts of sheep’s wool caught in their roughspun clothes.
You have a long, exciting road stretching out ahead of you, full of possibility and experience. You walk among them now, in a way you never have. You belong to them as they belong to you. And while on the scale of eternity this time is but a pit-stop on your travels, for now all that matters is that you are surrounded by warmth and love. And every fiber of your being—because you have a being now—is devoted to loving them all right back.
One month ago today, we told each other the Christmas story, surrounded by candles and poinsettias and love. But for Christ, the story did not end in that manger in Bethlehem… it was only just beginning. May our walk with Christ be the same: only just beginning.
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