Universes Collide

The other day, my universes collided. At least three of them. Here's how...

I was driving home from the church one afternoon, listening to a book about rafting in the Grand Canyon. Lots of descriptions about the beauty of the natural world - canyon walls, the colors of the water, the sky overhead, clouds and moon and stars and sunlight "sliding down the canyon walls." Lots of personal interactions, group dynamics and individual angst going on. Listening to fiction on my commute is recreational for me - so I was relaxing, cruising along (literally, with the cruise control on so I don't get caught up in a book and get a speeding ticket) at one with the road and the not-so-Grand-Canoyn-ish beauty around me. And then I notice it - a really strange cloud formation that has stripes in it. No kidding - tiny little gaps in parallel lines and curves and dips that let the blue sky show through. That's when the first collision happened. I wondered to myself, "How would you paint that on canvas?"

I missed the next several minutes of the book as I thought about all the various colors I'd need - white, gray, blue, lavender, and several combined shades in between. I'd have to paint the sky and let it dry before adding the clouds in order to have nice, clear blue sky show through the striped clouds. And how to create that effect?

Second collision - my Do-It-Yourself TV addiction kicking in: use a notched trowel, of course! If it's good enough for putting thin-set on the floor before laying tiles, it'd be perfect for scraping off parallel lines of cloud colored paint! But, no, it'd be too wide - I'd have to do this by hand with a toothpick, or a lollipop stick. And, bam - my mind is running around the floor plan of the local Michael's Arts and Crafts store trying to find a tiny little notched trowel-like tool, so I don't have to do all the stripes individually. Maybe a toy rake? A little, wooden, Zen-garden-rake-the-sand rake? I would have to check the candle aisle (sometimes Zen gardens come with candles as well as pebbles!)

In the space of a few miles, I'd traveled from the Grand Canyon to Union County, to Michael's in Dublin, to wherever Amy Mathews does her "Sweat Equity" gig and back again! And then I thought how much easier it is for God to just wave a hand and "make it so." Then I realized that God probably hadn't waved a hand at all - but, at the beginning of time, set in motion a set of natural laws that amount to a recipe. When the wind speed is thus, humidity at that level, clouds at such-and-such an altitude, etc., etc., etc. - the result is an unusual cloud formation that will amaze and stir wonder in anyone who takes the time to notice.

So, just before I backed up a few tracks on the CD and picked up the story where my mind went leapfrogging through creative space, I realized once again that maybe that's one of the ways we're created in God's image - as creative beings; problem solvers; imaginers and beauty-makers. God may work on the canvas of the cosmos, but we can each have our own canvas, yard, wall, floor, cloth, musical instrument, etc. to work with. How you put together your clothing/jewelry/shoes is creative. How you plan a meal is creative. How you place knickknacks on your desk is creative. You are a child of the Creator - so use Tinkertoys, thin-set and granite, or a choice of accessories for your wardrobe, but let your worlds collide and create!