I’ve tried to keep it a secret but I’ve been in Rehab for the past two weeks.  It’s called “Priests Who Think Too Highly Of Themselves.”  I was surprised by the large number who attend.  I was told there’s a waiting list.

One exercise was working with clay.  “Sounds easy,” I thought.  We were to think of something that’s important to us that we could create from clay.  I chose an ashtray.  It was my job to design, shape and configure this object the way I wanted it to be.  How many slots for the cigarette?  (One, I live alone and my cats don’t smoke.)  How deep does it need to be?  “Pretty deep,” I surmise.  Fancy border around the ring?  “Why not,” I conclude.  So I created my ashtray in an image and likeness that, well, reflects the image and likeness of its creator, me.

You probably already know where I’m going with my little tale.  No matter what happens to my silly ashtray, it will always be my creation.  If it gets old and worn, I’ll still remember it from its origin.  If it gets cracked, broken or fragmented, I’ll just save the lost pieces and perhaps glue them back or just hold on to those pieces, patiently, because I created it whole and I want it to remain whole.

Creator God created us whole and complete.  No creator will allow a creation to go abandoned or lost or broken.  Too much of the creator has been invested in the creation.  There is the personal investment as well as the frenzied life of the created object.  Isaiah tells us that even if a mother forgets her child, how can…

We seem to enjoy dwelling on our sin and our unworthiness as an impetus for a reunion with God and our lost pieces while all this time we didn’t need that kind of thinking because we are the created – created from a Creator who will never and can never forget what was created – even if it splinters, snaps or breaks and some pieces get lost or at least forgotten about.  All the pieces remain just where the Creator created them.  Along with the Maker’s help, we can remake what was misplaced, lost or broken.

The Creator always has the whole of creation in His mind.  His creation can only end the way it was created; in an image of goodness, likeness and the image of the One who created.

I can’t spend too much time here, it’s macrame day this afternoon.