Once, long, long ago....
yet somehow not so very long...
when all the animals
and rocks
and winds and waters
and
trees
and birds
and fish
and all the beings of the
world
could speak...
and understand one
another....
There began...AN ARGUMENT.
It began softly at first...
Quiet as the first
breeze
that
whispered,
"He is a wind who is never still."
Quiet as the stone that answered,
"He is a great
rock
that
never moves."
Gentle as the mountain that rumbled,
"God is a
snowy
peak
high above the clouds."
And the fish in the ocean that answered,
"God is
a
swimmer, in the dark blue depths of the sea."
"No," said the star,
"God is a twinkling and a shining far, far away."
"No," replied the ant,
"God is a sound and a smell and a feeling
who is very, very close."
"God," insisted the antelope,
"Is a runner, swift and free
who loves to leap and race with the wind."
"She is a great tree," murmured the willow,
"A part of the world, always growing and always
giving."
"You are wrong," argued the island,
"God is separate and apart."
"God is like the shining sun, far above all
things,"
added the blue sky.
"No, He is a river, who flows through the very heart
of
things,"
thundered the waterfall.
"She is a hunter," roared the lion.
"God is gentle," chirped the robin.
"He is powerful," growled the bear.
And the argument grew LOUDER
and LOUDER
and LOUDER..
until...
"STOP!"
A new voice spoke.
It rumbled loudly, like
thunder.
And it whispered softly, like butterfly sneezes.
The voice seemed to come from...
Why it seemed to come from..
...Old Turtle!
Old Turtle hardly ever said anything,
and certainly never argued about God.
But now Old Turtle began to speak.
"God is indeed deep,"
she said to the fish in the sea;
"And much higher than high,"
she told the mountains.
"He is swift and free as the wind,
and still solid as a great rock,"
she said to the breezes and stones.
"She is the life of the world,"
Turtle said to the willow.
"Always close by,
yet beyond the farthest twinkling light,"
she told the ant and the star.
"God is gentle and powerful.
Above all things and within all things.
God is all that we dream of,
and all that we seek,"
said Old Turtle,
"All that we come from
and all that we can find.
God IS."
Old Turtle had never said so much before.
All the beings of the world were surprised
and became very quiet.
But Old Turtle had one more thing to say,
"There will soon be a new family
of beings in the world," she said,
"And they will be strange and wonderful.
They will be reminders of all that God is.
They will come in many colors and shapes,
with different faces
and different ways of speaking.
Their thoughts will soar to the stars,
but their feet will walk the earth.
They will possess many powers.
They will be strong, yet tender,
a message of love from God to the earth,
and a prayer from the earth back to God."
And the people came.
But the people forgot.
They forgot that they were a message of love,
and a prayer from the earth.
And they began to argue...
about who knew God,
and who did not;
and where God was
and was not;
and whether God was,
or was not.
And often the people misused their powers
and hurt one another.
Or killed one another.
And they hurt the earth.
Until finally, even the forests began to die...
....and the rivers
and the oceans
and the plants and the animals
and the earth itself...
Because the people
could not remember who they were,
or where God was.
Until one day there came a voice,
like the growling of thunder;
but soft as butterfly sneezes,
"Please, STOP."
The voice seemed to come
from the mountain who rumbled.
"Sometimes I see God swimming
in the dark blue depths of the sea."
And from the ocean who sighed,
"He is often among the snow-capped peaks,
reflecting the sun."
From the stone who said,
"I sometimes feel Her breath, as She blows by."
And from the breeze who whispered,
"I feel His still presence
as I dance among the
rocks."
And the star who declared,
"God is very close."
And the island who added,
"His love touches everything."
And after a long, lonesome and scary time...
...The people listened, and began to hear...
And to see God in one another...
...And in the beauty of all the Earth.
And Old Turtle smiled.
And so did God.