{"id":873,"date":"2006-03-01T03:45:06","date_gmt":"2006-03-01T08:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacefulhippo.wordpress.com\/2006\/03\/01\/the-word-of-god\/"},"modified":"2006-03-01T03:45:06","modified_gmt":"2006-03-01T08:45:06","slug":"the-word-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/2006\/03\/01\/the-word-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Word of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center;\"><font size=\"5\"><span style=\"font-weight:bold;\">The Word of God<\/span><\/font><br \/>\n\u00a9 1994 Catherine Faber\n<\/div>\n<p>From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design,<br \/>\nStrike-slip fault and overthrust and sine and anticline&#8230;<br \/>\nWe gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known,<br \/>\nAnd count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone.<br \/>\nOdd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks and shells are found;<br \/>\nWhere truth has left its sketches on the slate below the ground. [1]<br \/>\nThe patient stone can speak, if we but listen when it talks.<br \/>\nHumans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks.<\/p>\n<p>There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night,<br \/>\nSeeking out the darkest place, to better see the light.<br \/>\nLong ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will,<br \/>\nGalileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; [2]<br \/>\nHigh above the mountaintops, where only distance bars,<br \/>\nThe truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars.<br \/>\nWe may watch and study or may shudder and deny,<br \/>\nHumans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky.<\/p>\n<p>By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur,<br \/>\nHow the living things that are &#8212; descend from things that were.<br \/>\nThe moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,<br \/>\nThese tiny, humble, wordless things &#8212; how shall they tell us lies?<br \/>\nWe are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring.<br \/>\nThe truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing.<br \/>\nRemember, should you have to choose between them in the strife,<br \/>\nHumans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.<\/p>\n<p>And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; [3]<br \/>\nOr break the very atoms down to see how they are made,<br \/>\nOr study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.<br \/>\nThe profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.<br \/>\nDeep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,<br \/>\nThe truth has left its living word for anyone to read.<br \/>\nSo turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.<br \/>\nHumans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.<\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp; [1] Pun on slate, kind of obvious but I wanted to point it out explicitly.<br \/>\n&nbsp; [2] Galileo was reputed to have said after his recantation, &#8220;and yet it moves!&#8221;<br \/>\n&nbsp; [3] i.e, on the moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Word of God \u00a9 1994 Catherine Faber From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design, Strike-slip fault and overthrust and sine and anticline&#8230; We gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known, And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone. Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks and shells are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}