The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 152 -
ABOUT SIMPLICITY. THE MIRACLE OF GOD'S LOVE.
And Seth, to whom Abedam had especially spoken, was amazed and so were all the others, although these words concerned them only incidentally. But neither Seth nor anyone else dared to put any further questions to Abedam whose high wisdom had as it were almost destroyed them. Except for the known Abedam whose tongue remained unperturbed and his heart calm. And so his talkative tongue soon requested permission of the patriarchs and the other Abedam, to speak his mind since everybody else was silent, and he had so far anyway only asked questions or answered the questions of others.
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This permission was willingly given and so he began to give vent to his tongue and said:
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"My beloved fathers and brothers and also You, my most highly respected and deeply loved namesake. It is an old saying among us that quite simple people and children usually speak the truth, and since I have every right to count myself among the first, and have always belonged to them, I am surely fit to be a preacher. And so I tell all of you quite openly that I am the happiest among you, that is, except the dear namesake.
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"You are wondering about the light-making, - not so I. For if one wondered at all that the Lord's endless might, power and highest wisdom are capable of bringing forth and easily effecting, one would have to spend one's life with nothing but wonderment
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"Is not every beat of our heart a great miracle, but who will be constantly wondering about it?
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"Or the fact that we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, can move at will, stand, walk, run, jump, and then again lie, sleep, dream, think, love, talk sensibly, eat, drink and so on, even procreate our kind in love and, in short, perceive everything with our senses, tell me, are not all these things incomprehensible wonders upon wonders?
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"But where is there a man who would, and could, be constantly wondering about all this if he is capable of thinking at all?
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"Who does not understand that a strong person can lift a heavier weight than a weak one? - Who will wonder about the strong one being stronger than the weak one?
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"If I took a stone into my hand and hurled it away thirty man - lengths from me, but a stronger and more skilled man hurled it a hundred man - lengths from him, - tell me, who will wonder at it? And yet this is quite as great a miracle as it would be if Abedam instead of this simple light had through a mighty 'Let there be!' created a second sun to illumine the night.
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"Truly, on careful consideration man should either keep wondering all the time or not at all. For when I wonder at one act of the Lord and at another not at all, am I then not either an appraiser of God's works none of which is in its way lesser than the other or I would have to be a hundred times more stupid than I am if I did not see at a glance that God is unfathomable, incomprehensible and infinite in everyone of His works. When I recognize this, why should I wonder if the almighty, most wise God brings forth works, which must in every imaginable respect correspond, to His infinite perfection?
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"Indeed, if someone were able with merely his human weakness to bring forth at a word a starry sky, truly, that would amaze me, but since that can be done only by the power of God, look, this does not make me wonder at all.
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"Or should it be a wonder if the almighty God can easily accomplish all this through His eternal, exceedingly wise order?
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"Look, this does not excite my wonder and will not ever do so. But I do greatly wonder that, considering what we now know, this almighty God is at the same time also our most loving, holy Father And so I recognize only one Wonder of wonders, and that is love, namely, the infinite love in God for us who are nothing before Him and also the love within us for Him, which is a laying hold of the infinite by the finite.
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"Look, this is the only point about which I keep wondering more and more because here two unimaginable things- an unspeakable nothingness and an unspeakable Allness - take hold of each other and most actively endeavor as it were to adjust to each other
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"Look, this makes me wonder and I call it a miracle. But as for everything else, which God does - and can do - out of His eternal might and power, and what we do and are capable of, why should, or how could, I wonder about that?
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"If I cannot wonder, and I cannot complain about possessing too much wisdom, what about you? You have all the wisdom in plenty, but you are silent concerning the lighting of the hut, yet you can usually all day long, often under the burning wonder of the sun, talk unhindered. Is then the light of the sun weaker than this one, or did its light arise less through the might of the divine Word than this one?
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"Look, this is noticed by a fool before you and, truly, it is also a wonder that you wise ones have not noticed it long ago.
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"We may gratefully enjoy every act of God which He surely performs out of pure and wonderful love for us nothings. But to become awe· struck through a work of divine power and completely ignore another one, truly, when looked at closely this amounts to rating God's works with our stupidity.
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Take a lenient view of my words, dear fathers and brothers, but I could not help bothering you with a reprimand about this matter which a blind man after some consideration should have recognized as foolish and most unworthy where God is concerned.
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"Therefore, let to all of us only the wonder of love be amazing, namely, that Almighty God is our Father, loves us and enables and allows us to love Him, too. For everything else let us thank Him with joyous hearts, and we shall surely become more worthy of calling ourselves His children than if awe-struck we gazed day and night at the motes, but forgot love, gratitude and all that which befits true children.
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"Let us enjoy all God's works and respect them because they are works of the Father out of love for us. But the rating of them we shall humbly leave to Him alone Who made them. Amen."