I know the basic biology.
Sperm. Egg. Embryo. Fetus.
And then…
Eyes. Mouth. Fingers. Toes.
A laugh unlike anyone else.
A smile which melts your heart.
A tiny hand wrapped around your finger.
Another life wrapped around your heart.
In all honesty, how does all that happen?
I know the basic biology.
But here. Today.
With water dripped on little heads we stand face to face with something more and, once again, are left to decide whether or not we will believe it. Knowing that words sometimes rush by and particularly words from the Bible. (I remember a woman who told me, in all seriousness, that when I read from the Bible she quit listening because what I read was often so hard to understand and that she started listening again when I began to speak.) So, again, this reminder and affirmation from Isaiah 40. Allow the words to sink in, just a bit.
Have you not know?
Have you not heard?
God is the everlasting God.
The creator of the ends of the earth.
Creator of the ends of the earth.
Everything from here to there which, I assume, includes you and me.
And this…from Psalm 8 which we said together earlier this morning…
When I look to the heavens, the work of your fingers;
The moon and the stars that you have established;
What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
Mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
And crowned them with glory and honor.
Carson and Blake.
Bill Gates and Syrian refugees.
You and me.
Little less than God.
Crowned with glory and honor.
Do you believe it?
I almost put a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon on the cover of the bulletin this morning. You remember Calvin and Hobbes? Calvin a precocious little boy. Hobbes his stuffed animal tiger. Calvin is standing in front of a mirror. Shorts on, but no shirt. Flexing his muscles and saying,
“Made in God’s own image. Yes, sir!”
Hobbes, the tiger, is lying there head on his paw and says,
“God must have one goofy sense of humor.”
It sometimes feels that way, doesn’t it?
Not so much when we hold or look at Carson and Blake or our own children and grandchildren and see, not flaws and mistakes, but mystery and wonder and something behind their eyes that we can’t quite describe.
But our lives…?
You and me?
Fearfully and wonderfully made?
Little less than God and crowned with glory and honor?
Hardly.
At least for me.
I carry my mistakes like scars. I have let people down. I have said words I wish I could take back. I have been silent when I should have spoken up.
You fill in the blank.
I wish I was more….
I am sorry about…
I am ashamed of…
But, here, this morning, I drip water from my hand onto their heads repeating words I really believe. For a moment, at least, wrapping their lives with holy dreams. Which brings me to this.
What I believe about them and for them, can I believe about myself?
What you hope for them and about them, can you wish for yourself?
Somehow wrapped up in who you are, just as you are the mystery and promise and possibility of God?
We gave this book to Blake and Carson this morning.
Let me read it to you.
And, as children’s books sometimes are, maybe this one is not only for them, but also for you…and even me.
When God Made You (by Matthew Paul Turner)
You, you, when God made YOU,
God made you all shiny and new
An incredible you, a you all your own
A you unlike anyone else ever known.
An exclusive design, one God refined,
You’re a perfectly crafted one of a kind.
‘Cause when God made you,
Somehow God knew
That the world needed someone exactly like you.
You, you, God thinks about you.
God was thinking of you long before your debut.
From the very beginning, amid history and time,
You, little one, never left God’s mind.
God imagined your eyes, your head’s shape and size,
And knew what you’d look like when you felt surprised.
God pictured your nose and all ten of your toes.
The sound of your voice? God had it composed.
The lines on your hands, your hair, every strand,
God knew every detail like it was all planned.
Out of billions of faces from cultures, all races,
People God made, from all different places,
God knew your name. Your picture was framed.
God’s family without you would not be the same.
‘Cause when God made you, this much is true,
The world got to meet who God already knew.
You, you, when God sees you,
God delights in what is and sees only what’s true.
That you – yes, YOU – in all of your glory,
Bring color and rhythm and rhyme to God’s story.
So be you – fully you – a show stopping review.
Live your life in full color, every tint, every hue.
Discover. Explore!
Have faith but love more.
And learn and relearn all that God made you for.
Use your talents and passion, those gifts that God fashioned.
Think up ideas and then put them in action.
Cause God loves you creating, your true self displaying,
When light on the inside through art is portraying.
When you make-believe, the stories conceived,
The heroics, the magic, those tricks up your sleeve.
When you dance all alone, spinning like a cyclone,
Being whoever, whatever, in a world all your own,
God smiles and here’s why – in the spark in your eye,
A familiar reflection shines bright from inside.
‘Cause when God made you and the world oohed and aahed,
In heaven they called you an image of God.
You, you, when God dreams about you,
God dreams about all that in you will be true.
That you – God’s YOU – will be hopeful and kind,
A giver who gives with heart, soul and mind.
A dreamer who dreams in big and small themes,
One who keeps dreaming in journeys upstream.
A mover, a shaker, a lover of nature.
A builder of bridges, you, the peacemaker.
A you who views others as sisters and brothers
And lives by three words: love one another.
A confident you, strong and brave too.
You being you is God’s dream coming true.
‘Cause when God made you, all of heaven was beaming
Over YOU, God was smiling and already dreaming.
May it be so.
For Carson and for Blake.
And, for you and me, as well.
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